MUSIC A MANIFESTATION OF SPIRIT(2)
ALEJO NOBILI, PART 2, this young musician from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who is always seeking to learn more about music, about life, about culture, about himself, has the kind of wisdom that is far beyond his years. He’s been playing bass since his teenage years and his repertoire goes from rock to jazz and now to Indian classical music.
It is with great pleasure to I give you part 2 of Alejo’s interview in which we taken a step further. Enjoy!
No. 6) Do you identify with your music and if so, on what level?
I do identify myself with the music I make, a lot. I actually see no difference between my music and me, but more important than that is the fact that I don’t feel responsible for the music I create. In fact, I don’t think that I do it. I feel more like a channel… like if the music was already sounding and all I had to do was go there and grab it. In Indian Music they know this very well. Their so called “ragas” are a combination of notes, feelings, and of course years of experience. They sometimes say that for the interpretation of the raga to feel the way it has to, you have to“call” the
emotion in the right way, so that the emotion, which is already “out there”, can come to us, pass through our fingers or voice (our body), and then “become one” with the music you’re playing. So I don’t feel responsible for “creating” an actual feeling… these already exist for themselves! The only thing that I believe I’m responsible of (but not that much) is of generating the proper environment or situation where I can make this happen, and do it for as long as I can with all my energy focused in the creative process. The other thing that I believe I’m responsible of (also not that much) is of studying a lot, so that when I want to get inside this “creativity machine”, I can handle it… I can understand it and then, really do it, without feeling that I left something unsaid, or “more-or-less” said… it has to be clear, it has to feel right.
I said that I don’t feel that much responsible because life situations can be very random, and so today I have a piano and who knows if tomorrow I’ll still have it, so I can’t say it’s all because of my effort… it’s hard to tell… I guess that if you create music sincerely and from your heart, then it’s good, and the other factors don’t really matter… I try to think “well, I don’t know the exact reasons, but the fact is that I have a piano right here, and I actually love it, so what’s the point on asking any questions if I already have the answers here?”. I only have to sit there and (within the 
proper conditions) everything will just happen.
No. 7) When do you do your best work?
For creativity purposes, I have to be alone, that’s a fact. I don’t have a specific hour, day or whatever. I try to do as much as I can and every time I can, at any hour. I don’t need special conditions, “normal” conditions are enough, and that means: being alone, having the instrument I need, and having something to write on. If I know that nobody’s going to call me or interrupt me, then that’s the ideal time.
This reminds me of an lesson given by a Yoga teacher to Paramahansa Yogananda, which is told in his book “Autobiography of a yogi”. Yogananda wanted badly to go to the Himalayas, because he thought that there he would find the “answers” for his life-questions. The teacher told him: “Do you have a room where you can close the door and nobody’s going to bother you? Well, that’s your Himalayas”.
I love that teaching and I really believe it and apply it to myself.
No. 8) Does playing music help your connect with your higher self whatever that is for you?
I think it’s a great way, it does help me connect to my higher self, but it has it’s moments… it’s not always 100%. I believe the best way to connect to your higher self is through meditation. There, you have no choice. If you don’t let your thoughts go away, you’ll be far away from your own self. If you don’t let your thoughts go, you’ll always be like “looking for
something”. It’s a matter of time to realize that there’s nothing to look for, the higher self it’s actually yourself but covered up with thousands of layers, like dust, made up with emotions, thoughts, opinions… and you have to let them go, one by one. Only then you’ll have a glimpse of what’s actually going on. And this takes a lot of time to achieve… but it’s all worth it! =)
No. 9) Your music is experimental, what are you looking for through sound or I could say frequency?
I’m looking for a combination of sounds that come from different places and cultures that somehow have affected me during my life. It’s a sound that has to do with a unique feeling, which manifests itself in different ways through the different compositions. I’m always “looking for” new ways of actually having this done. Essentially, the feeling has to do with the immortality of the soul, even if that seems a bit “extreme” for something which apparently is not that extreme, like a song. But let me put it this way: remember “Let it be” by the Beatles? Well, that’s one example of immortality through music. When the composer gets inside the sound he’s looking for, when he gets inside his own self, when he makes this connection happen, and when this is combined with the fact that he’s in the right place at the right time, then “Let it be” happens.
No. 10) I’m going to push this further: Do you feel, and I use the word “feel” because it is the only way to say it I can think of, do you feel there is a “frequency” (sound, note, harmony…) 
that everyone can resonate to without exception if they were to hear it? In other words a frequency that can put everyone on the same wavelength simultaneously?
In terms of music, I believe there have already been made some compositions which are immortal and show at least a tiny bit of what immortality is, that is to say, works which reflect this “frequency” we’re talking about. And if these works where to be heard by everybody at the same time, I have no doubt that these would put everybody on the same track. Just to name a few, I can say “Lux Aeterna” by Gyorgy Ligeti, “Oiseaux tristes (from Miriors)” by Maurice Ravel, any tune from Miles Davis’ “Kind of blue”… and I believe that Indian Music takes the First Prize. Any Raga performed by any of the hundreds of Ustads and Pandits (“Masters”) that have lived and who are alive today could unite the whole world in a matter of minutes. Let’s not forget that India is a country which has a culture that dates back thousands of years ago, and that they have been involved in artistic, philosophical and spiritual/religious matters since God-knows-when. So when it comes to music, they are aware of this “frequency”, they know it takes years of heavy studying with the right teachers to get to know this music inside-out. For them, spirituality and music are just the same thing, right from the start.
I really feel that this “frequency” exists, but I also feel that it’s going on right now… it has been there forever, and it’s always going to be there. And it’s up to us, to our power of will to enter this frequency, to “tune-into” this waveform. Even if I believe that anybody can do it, I also think that it’s also a matter of time and effort to try to let go our egos and cultural differences away, to forget the prejudices and to give in to any form of artistic expression from anywhere. Letting all these “bad things” go away would lead undoubtedly to a worldwide resonation in a “frequency” made up of unconditional love
Thank you Alejo Nobili for this most enlightening interview. I truly look forward to working with you again. You are inspired and inspiring, and I wish you well!
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