Leonardo Barilaro “Becoming who I was”
Some love is at core of who we are. Since a young age, pianist and aerospace engineer Dr. Leonardo Barilaro has been in love with music and the outer space. But then, how many people get to put their music on board of the International Space Station and broadcast it to Earth? Three months ago, Barilaro achieved this dream. “Becoming who I was” is about remembering, overlooking the past decades of a journey that leads him to where he is now.
Emotions and personal themes subtly wraps around the passion and expeditions of the universe. Classical meets spaces in a glorious, mysterious way, being expressed through polyphonic ideas, in which piano and electronics interweave into a mystery of its own, conceptually resembling the idea of co-existence. This non-linear sonic storytelling carries a sense of innocence and the familiarity of childhood, filtered through a slightly distorted glass, as if peeking through a door that leads to the past, standing in the far end of future.
Swirling electronic and beautifully woven melodies tell their own undisrupted stories. Sometimes they cross paths briefly and parted, continuing down a path of its own. Like a micro universe that is coiled in the idea of humanity and self, the track resembles the muchness and sensibility. Though being pulled closer to earth, we experience zero gravity and expansion as a part of our spiritual and intellectual pursuit. Barilaro has a very special technique when expressing the ideas and theories in outer space. For instance, a loss of gravity through an unevenly distribution of accented notes and polyrhythmic sound storms.
Beyond earth, beyond our limited perception of a world, the universe is glorious and drastic. The storms, the awe, the horror, the unpredictable all plays into the aesthetic, and so is the appreciation and respect of that beauty. As if the master of the universe if behind the track, casting down an invisible shadow, “Becoming who I was” is coiled in by a sense of sacredness, not to be dissuaded, undeterred. Technology meets nature and humanity in the most mysterious way, in a way not unlike the soundtracks of Westworld.