34 collection.
the title 34 collection emerges from a decade-long encounter with the number 34, a recurrence the artist associates with moments of creative intuition. this frequency, both symbolic and elusive, becomes the conceptual anchor of the work.
34 collection is an instrumental piano cycle of nine improvised compositions. each piece originates from a single word drawn from the artist’s earlier work “art is hygge, transforming language into sound. the project exists in dual form: music and visual art. every composition is paired with an individual artwork, extending the improvisation beyond the auditory into the tactile and visual.
in this way, the collection situates itself between disciplines, inviting the audience to experience improvisation not as ephemera, but as a lasting dialogue between word, sound, and image.
journal stories behind each word:
day 34 — songwriting
wednesday, september 2, 2020
on this day my journal contained only one line: “i was full and i wrote nothing.”
i don’t remember much else, except the sensation of moving too quickly waking up, going straight to the shower, skipping meditation, skipping stillness, dressing fast, and rushing to wherever i had to be.
when i shared this with Cuenca (piano player), he improvised two takes. this is the one we kept: raw, unedited, a pure improvisation inspired by the rush of that day.
songwriting is one of the words that most deeply connects me to why i wanted to make music in the first place: to write songs about what i was feeling on a specific day in my life.
day 134 — brainstorming
saturday, december 12, 2020
the word brainstorming comes from the way this piece began: an hour-long conversation with my gf about how i could create content during our anniversary trip to utah, and about the song that emerged from it.
one afternoon, while playing random chords, i started improvising lyrics about how i was feeling. a melody appeared simple, particular and it has stayed with me for five years.
recording note: as Cuenca (piano player) and i were developing ideas for the music, i played him the old voice note. that fragment and it became the motif for the entire song.
day 234 — 234
tuesday, march 23, 2021
the title 234 felt inevitable. after so many encounters with that number sequence, it had become a sign of its own. i even kept a folder in my dropbox filled with more than one hundred photos of the number 34. each time i saw it, i captured it!
this day was my father’s sixty-fifth birthday. we gathered at my parents’ home. daniela made him a shirt printed with the words from his instagram bio; my sister gave him clothes; i brought pizza for everyone. we spent the evening sharing stories of our childhood. the chaos of my sister’s birth, my gf confessions about hiding candy as a child..
the song holds a mood of faith and memory. its motif is inspired by Nickelback’s Photograph song, a melody that frames the feeling of nostalgia.
day 334 — curiosidad
thursday, july 1, 2021
the night before, i fell asleep with a single word in my mind: curiosity. a desire to learn something new, to do something different, to expand my own thinking though i didn’t yet know what form it would take.
the song carries that sense of wondering, a melody that drifts like a question left open.
day 434 — orlando
saturday, october 9, 2021
i woke up at noon and got ready to join the #spanglishtour with Los Wizzards. the show was pure energy. after midnight, i drove back with Juseph and Royg, they needed to return to miami by morning, and so did i.
i arrived home at 5am, showered, and read for a while, waiting for the first light to take me to the beach.
the motif of this piece is drawn from “Somos Los Wizzards”, a song from their first album Spanglish Love. it carries the echo of that night its rhythm, its exhaustion, and its joy.
day 534 — topocheers
monday, january 17, 2022
topocheers takes its name from a project i did with a friend, Jose Mizrahi, which we filmed that day at heiga studios.
at the same time, i was deep into the practice of psychoanalyzing myself through daily journaling. that morning, i wrote about the pull of not wanting to leave bed, the urge to sleep all day. yet five minutes later i was already seated, writing. the ritual of the journal became a release, a way to drain, to reset, to clear my mind so i could focus on everything i needed to do.
the piece carries that dual energy: the lethargy of wanting to stay still, and the discipline of showing up to create.
day 634 — joy
wednesday, april 27, 2022
joy marks the day i officially began working with joy studios. but the word reaches further back. over three years of jams, sessions, and content that inspired my creative process.
through these moments i learned not just about music, but about creativity itself: watching friends create every day, turning simple gatherings with friends into songs, improvisations, and experiments.
joy is both the name of a place and the feeling of being inside its process, where play, collaboration, and discovery become music.
day 734 — impresionante
tuesday, july 26, 2023
the word impressive came to me during joy creators camp, as i watched children and adults interact in a songwriting session. the similarities between them; the openness, the curiosity, the way ideas turned quickly into music, it felt striking.
this entry also held three simple notes of gratitude:
i am grateful for the instruments around me.
i am grateful for the good people surrounding me.
i am grateful for meaningful conversations with Dav.
like many of the journal’s pages, it is both observation and reflection. impressive is less about grandeur and more about noticing the act of play and the art of making music.
day 834 — noctiluca
thursday, november 3, 2022
noctiluca comes from a song i heard at Jorge Drexler’s concert and it stayed with me.
that evening, gf and i lay in bed, speaking heart to heart about our future. i told her that this year i had allowed myself to connect with children to understand why i had resisted them for so long. i believe i had finally released that block.
i also confessed that my fear of marriage was tied to freedom, my need to be with someone who understands the way i go about life and the space we give each other to simply be. that, i told her, is what i value most in our relationship.
noctiluca is an entry of light of intimacy, vulnerability, and the quiet glow of love in conversation.
the end.