Behind The Scenes with: Calm Pieces
In this week's blog post we head behind the scenes with Rafa Ramos Sania, who records as Calm Pieces. Following his 2025 Whitelabrecs debut 'Singles', new album 'Suburbia, Still' sees Rafa bringing together his love of electronic and acoustic instrumentation, so it felt like a good time to find out a little more about the person and process behind the music.
This conversation with Ryan Watts, AKA Akira Film Script, takes us through Rafa's journey with Calm Pieces, from his earlier collaboration with Edu Comelles on 'de camp' to the development of his solo work, as well as his audio-visual work and experiences in theatre and dance. Rafa also talks about the diverse musical influences behind Suburbia, Still, the role cinema played in shaping its mood, and his approach to bringing different sounds together while maintaining a consistent texture and character.
Turning specifically to Suburbia, Still, we explore the album's blend of classical, electronic, experimental and Ambient elements, his use of acoustic instruments, objects and worn-out cassette tape, and the relationship between his different musical projects. Rafa also discusses the album's artwork by nkl, his plans to take Calm Pieces into a live setting, and why he believes in not tying yourself to a genre...
Thanks for joining me today to discuss your new Calm Pieces album on Whitelabrecs, "Suburbia, Still" - a stunning entry in the Whitelabrecs canon if I do say so myself! Before we dive into the album, themes, concepts and more, would you mind taking a second to introduce yourself to readers that might be new to your music and the Calm Pieces project as a whole?
Hi Ryan, it’s a pleasure to be talking with you.
I began releasing music under the name Calm Pieces in the summer of 2022. My intention was to create a space where I could develop compositions rooted in ambient music, focusing on my interest in slow tempos, gentle electronics and the combination of electronic and acoustic instrumentation.
Now, this isn't your first outing on Whitelabrecs; can you share some of the other projects you've released on the label in the past?
The first Calm Pieces album I released with Whitelabrecs was "Singles" in January 2025. It was mainly made up of extended versions of singles I had previously released.
I’m very grateful to Harry for opening the door to the label and giving me the opportunity to release my first solo venture as Calm Pieces. We already knew each other, as I had previously released "de camp" with him in April 2022, my second album as a duo with Edu Comelles, centred around double bass and electronics.
"de camp" was such a beautiful, experimental, pastoral set - I'll admit I wasn't aware there was a relationship between the Calm Pieces "Singles" album, and the "de camp" release a few years prior! New excitement for old favorites!
I understand you also work in the audio/visual space, as well as performing arts; can you tell us a bit about that work, and how has that work funnelled into the Calm Pieces project?
Yes, I’ve worked extensively on audio-visual projects based around photography by different artists, together with photographer and editor David Linuesa. With this kind of work, you have to step into someone else’s world and try to reinforce the images with music without overwhelming them. Music close to ambient is particularly well suited to this, so I think these projects gave me expressive and recording techniques that have since been very useful in my work with Calm Pieces.
Something similar can happen in theatre and dance, although because these are live and immersive experiences, the musical approach tends to be different, or at least more varied.
That's awesome that you're able to channel experiences from creating in those arenas back into your personal project. It feels like a fair bit of growth has occurred between "Singles" and "Suburbia, Still" - a welcome, natural growth, no less.
Diving in on "Suburbia, Still" specifically, I understand there was no overarching concept, however the album is incredibly cohesive, blending jazz, electronic, experimental, and ambient; what was the unifying factor that brings such an eclectic set of sounds together so beautifully as you have herein?
Thank you very much. I take your question as a compliment, because bringing all my different musical interests together through composition has always been something I’ve wanted to do.
So, the fusion you hear in "Suburbia, Still" is essentially a reflection of my musical background, but approached from a calm perspective. At the same time, throughout the different pieces I tried to treat the sound in a consistent way, looking for a similar texture and sonic character across the whole album. I think that helped to bring all these different influences together and give the record its sense of cohesion.
You've done a masterful job at it. As such, and getting a bit nerdy here, what did your equipment setup look like for the album? Any go-to software or hardware that became all-stars in the recording process of the project's sessions?
I’ve actually continued working with much the same tools I’ve been using over the past few years, although I’ve made a few updates along the way. Logic on a Mac mini is the foundation and engine of my setup.
For the electronic side, I use a fairly wide range of software, which I control mainly with Novation controllers, as well as a recently acquired Argon8X by Modal Electronics. For the piano, I also use several different sounds, played through a Roland digital piano.
The more organic side comes from the instrumentation and objects. On this album there’s classical guitar, cello, Precision Bass and double bass, as well as gongs and Tibetan singing bowls, which I recorded together with Markos Peralta.
I also re-recorded several tracks, both electronic and instrumental, onto a worn-out 1990s cassette tape and then brought them back into the sessions. This was a simple way of giving the sounds a more vintage, organic texture and helped to blend the electronic and acoustic elements together.
My motto: more tape, haha - love it.
Going back to the compositions on the album themselves, I understand there was a wide array of influences that went into this album; can you share some of those with us and how they influenced your compositions?
I’ve listened to, and continue to listen to, a huge and very diverse range of music, so I suppose there are many different influences present in this album. It’s actually quite difficult for me to say which of them have had the greatest impact on the record. I’m sure I would leave out or forget far more influences than I could ever name.
It definitely comes off as a very inspired record; I can hear a multitude of influences from my end of things. Outside of external influences, was there anything going on personally in your life during these sessions that informed the album or its sonic direction?
Cinema, I think. Cinema was probably the main influence on the mood of the album. Over the past year I’ve watched almost one film a day, and many of them left an emotional imprint on me that I tried to convey through the compositions.
That's quite tangible, especially in the opening track!
Aside from a wide range of influences, and film inputs as well, you have another musical project that's focused on short-form instrumental pieces outside of the Calm Pieces material, and I was informed that these compositions on "Suburbia, Still" grew out of shorter works over the last year or so; was there any correlation between your short-form project and these works? Insomuch, did they develop into what we hear today after being isolated from your other project?
Alongside Calm Pieces, I also release music under two other names. Under my real name, Rafa Ramos Sania, I released a double bass and electronics album this year on Lost Tribe Sound, as well as several singles centred around piano and strings. I also release music as Furari, where I put out short pieces in a more open-ended style, but with a stronger focus on minimalism and contemporary classical music.
The main reason for having these different projects is to try to organise the music I release according to style and genre. I don’t think I’ve completely succeeded, though, because many Furari pieces could easily have been Calm Pieces tracks, and vice versa. The boundaries I try to draw between the three projects often end up dissolving.
It’s difficult to escape yourself.
I don't envy you for that effort at delineation; it's the main reason I said no matter what I do, it'd be under one artist name - how does one really determine where one thing or another lies when you have multiple projects? I commend your efforts to manage it all.
The album art and design by nkl is very textured and perfectly representative of the name "Suburbia, Still" - how did you come to work together on the art, and was the project already titled, or did the art direction inform the album's title in the end?
The title was already in place. Harry sent me several proposals for the album artwork, and I felt that nkl’s photographs worked perfectly with the music.
I have to agree.
Well, considering your wide array of output, both personally, professionally, in the Naima Jazz Trio, and other collaborations, are there any live shows or events where folks might be able to catch your work in the near future? Any plans to perform "Suburbia, Still" in a live setting?
Yes, that’s definitely my intention. I’ve been working for almost a year on the live set for my latest album under my own name, A Broadcast Of Your Silence (Lost Tribe Sound, 2026), as well as on a Calm Pieces live set featuring material from both albums.
The two sets are quite different. The first focuses on double bass and electronics, while the Calm Pieces set is centred around piano and electronics. The preparation has been demanding and slow, as I’ve never performed solo before, so this is a completely new experience for me.
I’m experimenting with different setups: one based around Ableton and controllers, and another using synthesizers and pre-recorded backing tracks, without a computer. I’m still working out which approach feels most natural, but I’m hoping to start performing both projects live in the near future.
Epic - can't wait to catch any recorded or video footage of these live sessions!
In our Inner Echo community we're constantly sharing music, both new and old, with each other. Any stone cold classic albums you'd like to share with us? Anything new that's captured your ears of late to share as well?
The musical knowledge of the members of the Echo community is overwhelming, so I’d like to mention a very well-known classic that perhaps won’t be to everyone’s taste. It’s Violator by Depeche Mode, released in 1990. It was an album that I absolutely loved as a teenager, and I still enjoy listening to it today.
As for more recent music, an album I’ve been listening to and appreciating lately is On Giacometti by Hania Rani, released in 2023.
Violator is a classic, no doubt about that. The first two notes of the opening song whisk me back to an old job next to a CD store when I was only 16 years old. Hania Rani is always a solid choice too - excellent stuff.
We've recently been chatting with each other in the community about methods and approaches within the ambient music ecosystem; any words of wisdom to share with readers that might be thinking of making the jump from their current musical outputs into the ambient space?
I don’t consider myself an expert in the genre, so if I had to offer one piece of advice, it would be the same advice I’d give to anyone working in any other genre of music: don’t lock yourself into a genre. Fly.
I love that. Quite sound advice, in fact.
Well, I know you're quite busy with all your endeavors, so I won't keep you any longer; thank you kindly for your time chatting with me today - we all greatly appreciate it, and look forward to the release of "Suburbia, Still" - until next time my friend!
Thank you very much for your interest, and I’m really pleased that my work has found its way to you and that you’re listening to it. It means a lot to me.
We hope you enjoyed this interview! To explore more about the artists, you can follow the links below...
'Suburbia, Still' is available in a limited repress of 100 vinyl-effect CDrs, as well as a digital options in a range of high quality formats. You can take a listen to the album in full HERE!
