Matteo Ramon Arevalos is a composer and a pianist who has collaborated with various theatre companies such as Masque Teatro and Nerval Teatro. His famous compositions, such as Metamorphosis, have gained wide recognition for their authenticity and brilliance.
Recently, Matteo Ramon Arevalos, who worked with the label Tunitemusic, revamped the legendary Western classical composer Erik Satie’s composition: ‘Gnossiennes’. Erik Satie stood out in the late nineteenth-century music scene because his pieces were pure odes to the Romantic era that brimmed with emotive excesses. His music thrived on a quiet restraint and a meditative feel, something which was quite uncommon back in the day, when musicians usually embraced dramatic crescendoes and elaborate virtuosity. One of the most famous creations was Gnossiennes, which incorporated the free rhythm structure, giving a lot of freedom for creativity to flow. This album explores the deeper facets of human psychology because it truly embraces the darker, more mysterious aspects of the human mind and emotions, willingly straying away from the brighter, merrier melodies.
The artist Matteo Ramon Arevalos recently took up this old classic to give it a pleasant reprise, not stripping away the originality but at the same time, giving it a refreshing new appeal. Arevalos’s rendition. While other musicians take Satie’s work quite intricately, Arevalos doesn’t shy away from exploring the darker psychological, often less explored, facets of the composition. What comes to the surface, as a result, is a quiet tension, a certain surrealism and unease, exposing the deeper undercurrents of the album. Matteo Ramon Arevalos keeps in mind the modern harmonic sensibilities and displays an uncanny charm that makes the listening experience quite immersive. The intentional pauses add to the heaviness and make every soundscape feel even more impactful. There is a certain fragility in the melodies that deeply mirror the emotional state and is a reflection of all that lies beneath the surface.
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What’s so admirable about Matteo Ramon Arevalos is his ingenuity as a composer that allows him to recognise the genius of Erik Satie and, at the same time, utilise his own to the best of his capacity!
We recently interviewed Matteo Ramon Arevalos. Here’s what he said:
- Your album is a beautiful rendition of the legendary Erik Satie. Tell us about the journey of bringing
his masterpieces back to life.
It was a very emotionally powerful experience for me to reconnect with the compositions of Satie
Gnossiennes since 2025. His language, or rather his message, is very essential and intense, similar
in idea to the essentiality of the compositions of Mozart or Chopin, where if you remove a note, the
entire invisible architecture that is music collapses. Managing to achieve a performance of his work
in its apparent simplicity was an immense pleasure, very difficult, and one that allowed me to
understand and feel a great deal.
- How do you aim to utilise the art of music to the benefit of your listeners? Do you think that music
has some special purpose?
For me, music is truly an invisible architecture. In ancient Greece, it was considered a source of
conditioning the human mind, thus discarding certain sequences of tetrachords considered
dangerous! Music is a language similar to the contact we have with dogs, cats, and other animals we
approach. For those who are more free, it is a great emotion that certainly brings benefits to those
who are ready to receive it. - Tell us about your favorite project that you have worked on so far.
One of my compositions I’m particularly fond of is TELEION, the reconstruction of musical fragments
from ancient Greece, which I’m currently working on further. But perhaps the most unique work I’ve
composed is MEMENTO CARAVAGGIO, a project for voice and prepared piano. In this project, I
used the few historically documented words of the painter Caravaggio during a court hearing and
from a contract he signed for a commission for one of his large canvases, The Nativity. Parchment
copies of some of his works are also placed in the piano strings, making the piano resemble a
harpsichord. - What is the idea behind “Gnossienne”?
I don’t really have a clear idea of this exceptional work, but I do have a particular focus on playing
and recording each piece individually to make the result as pure and simple as possible. An
interpretation without excessive mannerisms or suspensions. It certainly comes across as a
mysterious work, and the resulting sounds highlight this. The reference to Gnosis is very clear, but
also to the partial discovery of Knossos in 1878, a few years before the Gnossiennes. - If someone is listening to your music for the first time, what would you tell them? Give them a little
introduction.
I’d definitely tell him it’s not music for lovers of jazz or contemporary extreme music composers! A
sort of melody always survives in my work, or something that appears in other works. Just as in
figurative art, where an image that can be traced back to something survives, so too in my work. In
the history of music and in figurative art, they go hand in hand, except that an audience listening to a
musical period contemporary with Picasso’s work might find it difficult to hear. Music is a non-
material art, therefore much more intimate. - What are your aspirations as an artist? What gives you delight as a musician?
What brings you joy as a musician?
I see a lot of difficulty among musicians in having sincere friendships with each other; I sense a lot of
envy and difficult dynamics. I believe we need to free ourselves from prejudices and mentalities
created by schools, universities, and institutions. Many composers, pianists, and musicians in
general didn’t have virtuosic techniques, or instruments as precise as those today, but some truly
remarkable composers have managed to create true masterpieces. Many festivals around the world
program concert series featuring famous composers, which guarantee ticket sales. I believe the
future, and what I would hope for, is to create concert venues, with a maximum audience of 100-150
people, and to give all musicians—all the quality ones, of course—the opportunity to express
themselves and introduce new music to an audience that always listens to the same things!
Listen to the album right here:
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