New Beginnings
Ah!, a dramatic title.
What is going on? Well, a lot.
If you have been following my work for a little while, you might now I do nature / ecology field recording work, some sound design and many know me also as the curator of the nature sounds platform Earth.FM. I am all three! Life ebbs and flows and thrown me in different paths and as all professionals in these fields know, it’s usually not easy: there is instability in the industry, field recording projects are typically self-supported and freelancing comes with its own challenges, like taking care of your own finances - and that can be hardcore.
About 4 years ago, I left the only income activity I had, which was to edit some health / fitness / woowoo science-desguised / manifestation podcasts and, because the moral and ethical being in me couldn’t handle the crazy content any more paired with a very low pay. I was very lucky not to be paying rent at the time but I had only about 600€ which meant a month to change gears and step out heavily into new gigs. I remembering calculating my current earnings against what I earned years before in a footwear store, while studying, and see that I was earning slightly less. How could this be, after 5 years studying audio, with a solid professional experience? I did not have to accept the situation. It took me some courage but it was as if my body was completely rejecting the idea of continuing under those conditions. I felt it in the exceeding anxiety I was experiencing.
tweet: Today I quit my very underpaid job! No more pseudoscience: anti-vax, anti-mask, chakras, emotional vibrations, ayahuasca cerimonies for rich woke people!
- also: quit for moral reasons (obvious) so I’m still looking for something to replace it.
Anyway: whoohoo!
So I said, I QUIT, tweeted (X) about it, and I went for a walk. It was April - still a bit cold air but there were days filled with beautiful light between clouds and timid warm sun rays. As I started walking back home, I got a beautiful magpie feather from the ground, and soon enough I saw a double rainbow. I thought how beautiful it was and how lucky of me to see it without hurries. When I got home later, I must have laughed out loud when I got a DM on twitter with a possible job offer - which went through eventually and it was the main income for the couple of years to come, with two salary raises and a much more respectful work philosophy. Speak about signs from the Universe, to which I’ve always rolled my eyes.
Since then until today, I have been incredibly lucky with everything that went on professionally: stability most of the time, mostly good projects, good community, great connections. Not that everything was perfect, but overall it has been great and I am thankful for that every day. Really every day.
This year though - and especially these last months - I’m feeling so pulled and compelled to make music and expand beyond my acquired comfort zone. Most days I just can’t keep myself from working on music. It started - unknowingly to me then - after some experiences while travelling a bit in January, when I came back home with a heavy feeling on my chest. I didn’t know what it was until I went back to some music I listened to a lot around 2018, which connected me to the Swedish forests I knew and recorded and to some love stories in that time. The feeling of going back to expansive area of big trees, the constant awe, all the sensations were growing on me. Can I call it a calling? I guess! Why not? That firstly materialized on Here in There, a theme I ended up composing earlier in 2025 which stars of course with a recording of Howler Monkeys moving in the trees above me, in the Atlantic Forest. I did not include when they started to throw things at me and my friend, but those creaks is what you hear. But somehow it describes the peaceful enthusiasm of being in the forest in good company.
The ease with which this song was composed set me into much more hours involved with pouring out feelings through sounds, developing my skills, learning and experimenting. Currently, I am set to produce an entire album for 2026 and I’m finally feeling confident enough for it.
During this year, I’ve also released Sky, Earth, through the invitation of Mikel Nieto with his project, Petit Bardo: A series of sound works and recordings in which sound artists work with the listening act in existential finitude situations.
Both the reception and my own satisfaction of these themes gave me more confidence to continue composing. Recently I also released Fruition on SoundCloud , a theme that is tied to perseverance of practice and imagination. It’s a meditative piece or I interpret it as such.
Now, this all feels fantastic, but something else has been growing. So I decided to make everything possible to go back to Brazil and take some weeks in Peru, in the Amazon Rainforest. Following the enthusiasm and great recommendations of field recordist and friend Andy Martin, I’ll be spending 4 weeks recording and volunteering at the Manu Biostation. I am not yet in myself. You see, I tend to hold emotions buried until later and music has been a way to express them. Cliché I know, but it holds true! Part of my time in Brazil, aside from visiting my family, will be spent on one social project and an social-ecological one with two biologists and I can’t wait to share more about it. The latter will be to draw awareness to a deforest area but in which two very important species exists. What kind of field recordings will come out of this, I am not sure yet, but it matters immensely to be active on these matters. More about this next year! I am now focusing on perfecting my techniques on field recording and learning how to record effectively during rain. I have a pretty good ear and can edit tracks pretty well but technique needs to be developed even further. This is my own challenge for the months to come.
Some structural changes to my income are also taking place which means more time for my creative and work urges, and I could definitely use your help. I am offering a 30% discount on all and every purchase on my bandcamp to help me support the upcoming 4-months trip. Just use the code thankyou on your checkout. Or you can offer me a coffee on Ko-Fi. Every little bit helps!
And I don’t believe in signs of the Universe, but look what I saw the day I took these changes happened and when I decided to do this no matter what.
A double rainbow over the field