Gustavo Denouard (Interview)
Today we’re listening to Gustavo Denouard, an Argentinian keyboardist and composer from Buenos Aires. Inspired by Kraftwerk at a young age, he purchased a keyboard and later synthesizers. He joined his first rock band in the ‘90s, recording and playing with bands into the 2010s. In 2020 he started making solo ambient music, which he viewed not just as a fresh mode of creative expression but also as a form of therapy. We’re listening to his two solo LPs: Silent Morning (2025) and Mysterious Wind (2024). Inspired by Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, and Brian Eno, both records create what this newsletter is always in search of: atmospheres of profundity. A conversation with Gustavo follows the streaming links.
Silent Morning - Gustavo Denouard (51m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
Mysterious Wind - Gustavo Denouard (48m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
What's your earliest memory of music?
When I was 12 or 13 years old, my father owned a radio station and he had albums by different artists, so I spent a lot of time listening to music of all styles. I don't really know why but the song “Radioactivity” by Kraftwerk caught my attention. In the mid ‘80s with the pop music boom I was listening to bands like Depeche Mode, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, The Cure, etc.
How'd you start playing keyboards/synths?
Listening to Kraftwerk sparked my interest in synthesizers. Kraftwerk was different from anything I had ever heard. Kraftwerk sounded like it came from another planet. I also started listening to Jarre and Vangelis at the same time. I bought my first keyboard and that's how my interest in electronic music started.
Later, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and Brian Eno came to my ears and that would be a big influence on my music today.
What was it like playing synths in rock bands?
In the late ‘90s I had my first rock band. I played synthesizers there. I played a Korg M1 and a Roland XP10. Later I used Korg MS20 and Ableton Live running sounds from a Midi controller. This went on for 15 years and those were fun years. Lots of shows and excesses. These were long nights, too long haha. I learned a lot about sound on stage. We recorded a couple of albums. We met a lot of fun people. We played at very crowded festivals and also at strange places with very small crowds. I always remember one place where the organiser of the event hadn't announced our gig and when we got there there were only eight people. They came in just because there was noise in the place. Even the people in that town didn't know that the bar would be open on the day of our show.
Tell us about the creative evolution of going from playing rock/pop to making ambient music solo.
The way of composing is very different. In the rock band I used to compose the songs myself. Composing ambient music is really liberating. You feel that there are no limits to do what you want to do. There are no structures. You have the whole palette of colours to use however you want.
Ambient music is a great therapy for me. I feel really free in the moments when every sound passes from my mind to my fingers and from my fingers to the synthesizers.
What was your studio setup for Silent Morning?
To compose my new album I decided to do it in moments of solitude and calm. It was recorded in my home studio, in a very quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
I started recording layers with my Korg Wavestate to later process them and make them my "main sleeping pad." Then I added some field recordings of birds, crystalline sounds from Behringer Deepmind 6, dusted off my old Yamaha DX7 to include a few FM sounds and the contribution of analog sounds from my Arturia Matrix Minibrute.
I use Ableton Live for recording and composing. I also used some Arturia VSTs for both effects and synth sounds.
I did the mixing and mastering myself.
How do you discover new music these days? Any notable discoveries recently?
I've been listening to a lot of artists on Bandcamp for a few years now. I like to explore the labels to discover new artists. There are many wonderful labels and the quality of today's artists is fantastic. My favourite are Projekt Records, Cyclical Dreams, Spotted Peccary, DIN, Quiet Details, Castles In Space, Cold Springs, and others.
I don't want to mention specific artists because I listen to so many. Ambient and Berlin School are my favourite genres.
Name an underrated artist from the past 50 years.
Bernard Fêvre has made wonderful records and is not very well known. There are also great gems by artists like Wolfgang Dueren, Joel Fajerman, Zanov, Harald Grosskopf, Adelbert Von Deyen. Of course I was able to find this thanks to the power of the internet, otherwise I would never have been able to listen to all this music.
What are you working on next?
I'm currently playing synthesizers, watching movies and reading books. Everything to feed my creative power. Probably in the next few months I will start composing my next album.
