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With its enrapturing mesh of prepared piano, positive organ and dense synth textures, Font de la Vera Pau is the blissful collaborative debut from celebrated producer Raül Refree and electronic musician and sound designer Pedro Vian. We spoke to the Barcelona-based pair to learn more about their process

Photo: Adrià_Cañameras

Cm:How did the idea for this album first materialise?

Pedro: “We composed the album in three parts; I presented the first part to Raül which was recorded with a synthesiser. Over this part, he played the organ and then the piano.”

Raül: “Pedro came to me with the idea of the record – these were first steps with synths.

I thought it was a very interesting record, but he said there was something missing – that the music needed something that I could play on top. For me it was quite a quick process because the flavour was already set by Pedro. What I did a lot was improvise, maybe one or two takes on every song, with both positive organ [an antiquated version of an organ] and prepared piano. I thought it had to be fresh, like something that happened almost in real time.” Pedro: “For me it was super spontaneous too. I approached the synth [Roland System 100] like a piano. I’m not a piano player and haven’t played it before really. But I attached a pedal to my Roland, then set it to generate some delays. Then the recording was super-fast and spontaneous. That’s when I realised I needed something else. I liked that idea but I thought we could go further and deeper. So I went to Raül.”