02.07.2025
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Juan Pablo Fernández Ramos interview. Otra representación de la realidad

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Juan Pablo Fernández Ramos interview. Otra representación de la realidad

Ukrainian version

Juan Pablo Fernández Ramos is not only a composer but also a physicist. Rigor and intuition, logic and emotion coexist in his music. With his new album "Otra representación de la realidad," he invites us to rethink perception and listen beyond what our senses offer us.

How do you reconcile your scientific background with the creative need to express yourself through music?

It's very simple. There's a common point: creativity/imagination, which is necessary in both cases. Humans seem to have a limited ability to create large new neural circuits (there was a time at the beginning when a 2-3-year-old child had the maximum number of neural connections, and then there was a sifting), but rather they make small variations on certain large structures or circuits that already exist. Can this tendency change? I'm not saying it's impossible, but what do I do when I think differently from a scientific point of view, using small variations of existing connections or, better, connecting two large circuits of connections that don't usually seem connected? As you can see, I really like this question, and I don't know the answer, but I'm playing with it. In short, the association of ideas is a very powerful tool.

How do you believe music can contribute to a greater awareness of reality?

Great question. I love it. Music alone cannot help us achieve a better representation of reality, but it can help us achieve better consciousness. The fact that music is part of reality, that it is real, is something we experience every day. This constant interaction reminds us of it. If tomorrow I wake up deaf, I no longer have that way of perceiving reality, even though it exists, it's there, and I'm aware of it because of the experience I had in the past. The awareness that, despite our senses, which give us the ability to recognize reality, reality still exists, is very powerful and unsettling at the same time. What allows us to access reality are the senses, but at the same time, this access is not perfect and is limited by the range of hearing and the precision of the human ear (to give the example of sound). Our senses are the portal to what is out there and to what we call reality, but we must be aware of their vulnerabilities and limitations, and also the fact that we might have other senses (the ability to "see" magnetic field lines, for example). On the other hand, music is a language in itself, and what makes us recall another perception or perspective on reality is the fact that this language does not seek precision in terms of understanding what we want to decide when this or that other is playing, without simply putting aside the task of interpreting anything in particular because there is no unique and unequivocal interpretation, and there is the myth that makes you worry about not understanding anything. It's wonderful.

Are there any composers or artists who have inspired you on this journey between music and science?

My father (Juan Pablo Fernández Escudero). He always encouraged me to follow both paths, not to abandon either because he intuited that it would be the best choice for me. He was right and is right. My father created a more intuitive language for reading music (with seven colors that follow the rainbow sequence and start with the letter G to represent the seven sounds, and different lines of different lengths to represent duration) that has always been a source of inspiration for me. It's called the C.E.S.T. language. Who would have thought that research and development also existed in the field of musical language?

What would you like someone listening to your album for the first time to experience?

I hope you get goosebumps more than once. This must be extremely beneficial for the human body and its health. May you experience all kinds of sensations, and among them, may inner peace never be absent.

If your music were a landscape, what kind of place would it be?

Could it be the landscape of a dream? If it has to be real, it's daytime, and it's a waterfall on an island just before reaching a calm turquoise sea, with a few clouds lighting up the day. The sound of the waterfall is present but not the protagonist, just as the palm trees playing with their shadows or the feeling of sand on the skin are not. The ensemble, the whole is what stands out, and in that ensemble, there's much more than what my eyes, ears, and touch can perceive. It's that balance.

Have you ever thought about transforming your musical projects into live performances or audiovisual installations?

Yes, in fact, many of them start from a scene. The idea is the initial scene, and that makes it much easier for me to write. I have written many compositions based on existing or invented stories. Of the invented ones: "The Enchanted Puppet" (La marioneta encantada), "The Medusa" (La Medusa), "The Clown and the Acrobat" (El payaso y la acróbata), "The Duke and the Gypsy" (El duque y la gitana), "The Coronation of the Humble King" (La coronación), "Hemerocalis" (Hemerocalis), "Borealis" (Borealis), "The Fable of the Wandering Flute," etc.

Others involve well-known stories such as "The Big Bad Wolf" (El lobo feroz), "The Epics" (Las epopeyas), "Alice in Wonderland" (Alicia en el país de las maravillas), "Pinocchio" (Pinocho), "Exodus" (Éxodo), "Peter Pan" (Peter Pan), "The Little Mermaid" (La sirenita), "Sindbad the Sailor" (Simbad el marino), "One Thousand and One Nights" (Las mil y una noches), "The Wizard of Oz" (El mago de Oz). Others like the representation of bees or a coral reef or a pilgrim's journey along the Camino de Santiago, or the representation of the Joker's madness or Don Quixote in front of windmills or adventurers and sailors facing all kinds of events and situations at sea, Arjuna's dilemma, the awakening of the phoenix, Echidna's dream, the wedding at Cana, the labors of Hercules...

Not all of them have been released, but the fact is that their release had been planned for over a year (before I met Patricia and her extraordinary work, her intuition, her attraction, and her commitment to still undiscovered talents). Iran is leaving by 2029! And along the way, I keep writing...

Is there a moment, even personal, that has particularly influenced this work?

Very much so, every time I do outreach activities. On Sunday, for example, I'll have another opportunity to go out and spread the word about science, the scientific method, and the best way to approach this reality: through dogma, through experiments, or both. A more concrete example: "The Lame Man and the Fraunhofer Lines" is a song I dedicated to myself. I limp in many ways, so many that I can't even count them, and the Fraunhofer lines represent what the invisible can do (not that it's invisible because it's unknown, but because humans are genetically designed to interact only in a certain way, which is called classical and which in physical terms implies the collapse of subatomic particle physics and in particular their representation or wave function). I don't know what I can do, but I'm glad my imagination is still there, sometimes it collapses and sometimes it produces words and other times sounds.

Your music is very cinematic. Have you ever received proposals for soundtracks or would you like to explore that field?

Unfortunately, I haven't received any proposals, but I'm not even looking for one, because I love delving into science, and it would be difficult to make the two compatible. I worked in mining for 31 years, and I might still have enough energy to continue mining for another 10 years... then I'll leave the mine...

What message would you like to send to the Ukrainian audience through your art?

I wouldn't know what to say, I'm sorry. They are going through a difficult time. A great encouragement to everyone. Perhaps hope is the last thing to be lost. May misunderstanding not block us, and may fantasy/creativity always fight against the sometimes harsher reality (not having water, food, or shelter). In these circumstances, music can also be a consolation, but not a solution. The solution is never to give up in the face of horror. Goliath can break my body, but it's harder to break the intangible, and only one knows that strength. Many of these intangible forces have moved people and continue to move and inspire them.

If you could collaborate with one scientist and one musician together for a future project, who would you choose and why?

With Luis Roberto Flores Castillo. He is an eminent scientist and at the same time masters the art of imagination and creativity like no other. And with my son Luis. He has just started writing, and I see great potential in him. The challenge is that he and I write in very different styles, but it's a wonderful challenge.

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