Track By Track: J.C. – Portrait Of The Flying Sky

Jose Cabrera, or J.C. for short, had a desire to create a full length LP that didn't lose any of the techno or house sould when working on his album Portrait Of The Flying Sky. The result? You'll find yourself slipping along one big techno slide of cracking sounds for so long that you'll forget whether or not you're in reality or simply your own mind. 

The Spanish DJ/producer has combined forces with Ilian Tape boss Dario Zenker and the ratehr talented Psynote on this latest aural outing which supposedly is "a snapshot of J.C’s musical life and learning to date." As we enjoyed the album so much, we asked J.C. to talk us through it in full – one track at a time;

Caliban

I always feel each album has to have an intro track. This is the case with 'Caliban' on Portrait of the Flying Sky. I wanted to start off with a Vangelis-alike song, set the mood with something psychedelic and atmospheric. I think it does the trick. 

Endorphinas feat Kastil 

I have had this track for a long time. It came out on one of the many studio sessions I have had with Kastil over the years in his magnificent studio in Vitoria. He has every machine on Earth and its always a pleasure to work there. We wanted to do a long track that had a slow development and different stages. We have a lot of unreleased songs together but I felt this one fit perfectly with the album's concept. 

Human Behavior 

I have always been a huge huge fan of Maurizio, Basic Channel, etc… Probably one of my biggest influences ever so, this being my first album, I wanted to pay tribute to them by making this track. Not that I would say that it sounds the same, because its impossible to get that feeling, but I wanted to approach it with my own style and this is how it came out. 

Hydra

This is the track I finished last, after months of work. I couldn't find the right song to finish the LP. I started working on it after a gig at Tresor that inspired me a lot. Started playing with my synths to get the right line of sound and the correct pattern. Wanted something straight-forward but weird, something bleepy. 

King of the Wild Frontier 

Portrait of the Flying Sky is mostly a "playable" album but I still wanted to have its intros and preludes. This is the case with this track but I actually wanted it to have a message so I started recording words with a type and hear software. I wanted to make a collage with words that had a strong meaning for me. The first part of the album is a bit relentless so this serves to break things up.

Nebula 585 feat. Dario Zenker

This is probably my favorite track on the album. I really wanted to have Dario on board for it because we have been friends for a long long time, and I am huge fan of his music, so I basically recorded the beats and the synth bass and told him to play something on top. He came up with this amazing atmospheric pad that fitted perfectly. Couldn't be more happy!! It has a really big sentimental feeling that I love. 

Nereid

'Nereid' is the first track that I started working on specifically for the album and it went through a lot of changes before I finally finished it. I think the only sound that stayed still is the main synth, then I added all the strings and pads around it. In my opinion, it mixes a big cliché techno sound with new and different elements and they make a great personal combination. 

Hyperion feat. Tadeo

I think this is the most "dancefloor" track on the LP. Every time I play it, the crowd goes crazy. Tadeo has always being a big influence and a great friend. I think the song mixes both, mine and his, characters. He came up with the synth line so I started working around it, doing the beats and the song sequencing. This is one of the tracks of the album that took me less time to finish. The concept was very clear and I think the result was exactly as I intended.  

Titania 

I normally always start a track doing the beat first, then build everything around it. This wasn't the case with 'Titania'. It actually started off as an ambient track. I began recording all these atmospheres and weird synthy sounds, then I turned my 303 and made the bass pattern. I wasn't sure about adding drums to it but when I tried it, it worked. My aim was to make a futuristic version of how techno could sound. It's probably a good representation of what my next material is going to be like. 

Dementia feat Psynote

The creation process of this track was long. Franco (Psynote) was sending me all these sounds but I couldn't work or finish any track around them that I was 100% happy with. So I changed the track's approach completely. It turned out to be a perfect outro for the album. It has this strange drum pattern with weird sounds and glitches coming in and out with a really strident feeling but it finally ends relaxed and peaceful. 

Portrait Of The Flying Sky is out now via Boards. Find out more about J.C. here.