Be still & bliss out with Like Animals’ ‘Being Here’

Luis Gutierrez aka Like Animals isn’t afraid to get lost in his own thoughts. The consummate producer, multi-instrumentalist and DJ has always embraced free form, which has resulted in sweeping releases that aren’t short of mind-bending.

With a streak of productions that go anywhere between dark room belters, like “Function” off his Transit Records’ Majorelle Blue EP and drippy spaced-out tracks such as “Seven One One”, Gutierrez emerges from his studio with his latest drop, “Being Here” — an audial ode that strung together filed recordings and abstract sounds that invites its listeners to stay still.

“Compared to most of my other releases, this one I feel is more intimately honest about me and my actual reasons for making music. It's always been about learning about life and figuring out how to deal with the chaos in and around me. My other releases come from the same place, but go through many processes in order to clearly tell their stories. In this case, I just wanted to create some stillness so I could hear what was already around and within me, which gave way to such a simple piece. It was very interesting to do stuff without any drums (me being a drummer), and only relying on the very subtle natural rhythms I found in the field recordings I used, and in the changes in oscillation of the drone itself. These things are really tiny details, which I find to be the fun part of drone and ambient music. The minute changes and the things they change, even in what seems like a big, unchanging note.”

Having traveled across the region, even stationing at one point by the Philippine seaside and back again to his hometown in the country’s capital, Gutierrez has allowed his almost nomadic approach of being enlivened by his surroundings take centerstage, this time, with meditative sensibility.

“My process for making these types of pieces is largely the same, with the main difference being the speed at which I do it. I'm usually a bit of a speed demon when i make things, never wanting my ideas to pass me by. But in this case, since it's a way for me to meditate as well, letting go of pieces of my perceived identity is helpful and keeps me in the present moment. Just me and the drone alone in my room. It sort of strikes me as similar to gardening too in the sense that I’m trying to grow this thing that I don't have complete control over.”

[Images via Like Animals]

Samantha Nicole is Mixmag Asia’s Philippines Correspondent, follow her on Instagram.