© Tous droits réservés par Gaël Fromantin - © All right reserved by Gaël Fromantin - 2024
It was at the age of 12, in 1979, that I decided to learn to play the guitar, after attempting to identify a popular tune being played by a summer camp instructor. Having first “got the hang of it” on a simple classical guitar, I then preferred the play and sound of steel string “folk” guitars.
I started by learning the basic chords, which I would strum on my guitar, tirelessly, for hours. Then, I quickly created my own arpeggios.
And then it was suddenly much better.
At that time, all my free time was dedicated to learning the guitar. When I could not make any progress anymore, my playing developed again when I met a teacher who made me want to learn “Ragtime”. It was the only music class I ever had in my life, the only piece I learned that wasn’t mine. This encounter was a turning point in the evolution of my playing technique and style. Of course, I was also strongly influenced by all the music that accompanied me since my adolescence; Classical music, Opera, Bossa Nova, Rock, New Wave, Zouc, the different forms of Jazz, Blues, Variety music, Fusion etc.. All these colors have found their place on my musical palette and have each been diluted in my playing with more or less intensity.
Mastering a musical instrument is a long-term process and takes a lot of time. I was often frustrated because I could not play the music I imagined. However, if I persevered, it was only because of the intensity of what I felt when I succeeded.
In those indescribable moments, I felt immediately elsewhere, out of space and out of time, perceiving only my music and nothing else, absorbed entirely by this creative impulse, becoming one with my instrument. Thinking of nothing else, my ear glued to the guitar, fascinated, I found myself trapped in an eternal present with no other will than to feel and think in music, freely.
It is precisely after having experienced this sensation, a true revelation, that my guitar became an essential company in my life.
Since then, I have always listened to my inner voice, the one that invites me to create my own universe, playing what enchants me, according to my moods, developing my technique according to the needs dictated by my inspiration of the moment. In other words, I always let this “something in me that has something to say” express itself.
In this way, year after year, by dint of exploration and trial and error, I have given birth to the sounds, chords, melodies and harmonies that inhabit each of my dialogues and stories.
Today, with the hindsight of years, I realize that all these compositions are finally like parts of me, “pieces” of me. They are the faithful reflections of my affects, intimate confidences, that my guitar, my mirror, reveals. True cartographies, they are all gathered in an atlas which is enriched regularly and which I preserve delicately, preciously.
At a turning point in my life, when I had to make a choice of professional orientation, not having found the necessary foundations to develop my musical practice and to consider a career in music, I decided to continue or at least resume my studies, where, because of the intensive learning of the guitar, I had carelessly left them.
As a result, I became an engineer and pursued a career in the industry.
The various positions I have held have given me the opportunity to travel the world and to be in close contact with people of different cultures and aspirations who have enriched me deeply. I thank them for that. What a chance I had to meet them.
In spite of all these travels, I always kept my precious guitar with me and when I had the imperative need, I would revive my dialogues or compose new ones. However, my practice was then less sustained and frequent than in my teenage years, obviously.
So time has passed. Life has done its work. 30 years have passed.
It is thus finally in 2019, encouraged by my close relations as well as by all those whose road I crossed during all these years, that I decided to share my universe.
This musical universe that I continued to enrich, over the years…
… years during which, I did not cease to dialogue passionately and tenderly, with this faithful companion… that is my Guitar.
© Tous droits réservés par Gaël Fromantin - © All right reserved by Gaël Fromantin - 2024