Totemtag

I would like to introduce my music to you, and what electronic music means for me. Totemtag is my pseudonym.

Since when I was 16, after several years of progressive rock, I suddenly discovered Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, and from that time on, I have never left them. Shortly later, I started to study astrophysics at university, and for me Berlin School was constantly the soundtrack of my stars, galaxies and cosmology, even when during my Ph.D. work I was carrying out observational runs using several kinds of telescopes. For instance, when I was doing fast photometry of high-mass close binary star 4U-2206+54, “Timewind”, “Rubycon” and “Phaedra” were sounding in the air inside the dome.

During University, I was surrounded by Korg and Roland synths, sequencers and samplers, which I bought second hand at low price: now they would belong to a vintage collection. However, at some point, my parents had to sell our house in Bologna, and I did not know where I could put my keyboards (no suitable room in the new place where I went). So I sold them too (much to my regret). Twenty years passed and very often during all those years at night, I was dreaming of playing, as ideas for new songs were coming to my mind while sleeping (much to my frustration).

Ten years ago I decided to restart and so I bought some high quality (relatively) new generation synths. I found a hole where I could play, always with my headphones on. In my new house, here in the mountains, I have much more space and inspiration, in my free time from work.

I have had Youtube, Soundcloud and Mixcloud channels where I published about 300 pieces, but a few months ago, I decided to make a strict selection of my best ones, so I deleted those channels. My music now is in compact form, only on Bandcamp. There I post both (relatively) old pieces as well as brand new ones.

I have learnt much from many of you, and I am grateful for that. We are united by a common beating heart and thinking mind.

What does electronic music mean for me? It means going back to our cosmic home. In addition, sometimes I feel that our music (especially its sequences) is already written somewhere in the universe and like visionaries all of a sudden we are able to catch it and encode it in our oscillators and keys (when we do not do mere technical virtuosity). Synthesizers have been truly a great invention, as they opened gates in our mind, and, above all, in our consciousness.

Playing for me is my meditation, and most of the times it is improvisation. I stopped writing music since years. I always start with a sound I like (totally new sound or drastically modified patch) which I mostly use for chords, then I prepare a sound texture background, then I start creating a sequence (possibly combined and/or arpeggiated), and finally (only sometimes) choosing a soloist sound. Sometimes some sounds remind me of colorful landscapes, parallel universes or are a dejavu of something that I am not able to define. I feel that our doing sequences is exactly the technological version of the tom-tom of a shaman in the forest: we simply catch the heart of the Universe and we go in tune with it, just like surfing on a wave. I love this a lot, even if sometimes melodies appear all of a sudden. I let my hands run on the keys and see what happens, just the opposite than I do when I do mathematical calculations or write technical articles for my work. The right-brain aspects of electronic music compensate my left-brain.

With no doubt, I am particularly influenced by classic German Berlin School, and recently by Ambient, Trance and Chillout.

My music is inspired mostly by the Universe, but also by Nature, by Magic and by Sci-Fi. I write music only for myself and not by commission. And I am happy if it gives pleasure to some listeners. Thank you for taking your time to read this: it is dedicated to all electronic musicians.

Massimo

You can follow, listen, and purchase Totemtag on Bandcamp Thank you for your support!

Totemtag logo created by Milos Anic