Promises

New Video now OUT!

with much pleasure we're proud to announce the release of our first single and video
"landscapes in a truck", made up of images from the film: "landscapes in a truck" by Andres Duque, selected images from the film had been edited to fit and convey the message on the song.
we're proud of it!!

Q & A with Roman(us)

“What inspired you and Felix to work together on this new album? 
 J.ROMAN: we always wanted to do something together. We spend years talking about it, how to do it, how it would sound like. I think the fact that technology has advance so much in terms of music software, and the advancements of the internet, that all those things pull together to make this time , the time to do it. And of course there was the RPM challenge. If that event wouldn't have happened, I guess we will still talking about making music.
 
F. ROMAN:The RPM Challenge, was really a great opportunity for this to happen FINALLY!! It has been a long time for us wanting to do something like this musically. Each of our separate experiences as musicians shapped this project of which we are proudly satified!
 
Describe the process of working together to create this album.  What were some of the processes you and Felix went through in creating a song…the evolution of a track…   What worked really well?
 
JR:I would…either start with a drum beat, or a synth drone of sort, I play around the keyboard looking for chords that I think will sound good against what I am playing on the software application…once I get something with substance, I’d see where else can I take this piece of music, how can it be developed into a different section, once I have something that to my opinion have some logical structure…I would then send it to F….
 he would add some singing to it using his own lyrics, or some poems I would have written, and he would manipulate them In order to fit into the tune…or not.
also there are pieces that are just F ideas, in which I had no involvement, perhaps a suggestion on certain voice over the lyrics or shortening or expanding a section….but some compositions belong entirely to F
 
FR: my process could start by listening to a sound, maybe a chord, or a noise. I record it, create a loop out of it, on top of that I start singing the first thing that cross my mind, while at the same time I record myself singing, I'd retouch it a little then send it to J, he would add perhaps, some Rhythms or chords…
 
And, what didn’t work (maybe?)
JR: ….some ideas didn’t work….I have kept I think 3 or 4 pieces that didn’t get used at all and I think they’re great…so now I have to figure out what to do with them.. Maybe keep them to develop them and use them later
 
FR:…If something doesn’t work at the moment, we store it, we might use it in the future
 
 What surprised you along the way? 
 
JR: it surprised me how a piece that I would built with an specific structure in mind, such as, Secret Lives of Trees, here are the verses, then the chorus, the we have a space for the solos, …I’d do this with the supposedly preconception that F, would understand the piece the same way I do…..to my surprise, in that particular piece, he sang in places I wasn’t expecting to be any voice at all….changing completely what I have originally structured for the song….it work nonetheless….it was a funny process
 
FR: the most entertaining part is to realize how J, can see one particular piece one way, and myself on a different take, the tune changes radically once we each have done what we thought it should be…
 
 
What were some of the challenges with working remotely?
 
JR:Other than the fact that we’re not physically in the same room, is the time changes between Europe and the US…by the time I’m done working for the day, and I could dedicate some time to work on the music, it was already midnight in the EU, so F, would be most likely in bed.  Some weekends we could connect easily, I would get up earlier and then converse over the internet via Skype and played each others ideas we had developed that week.
 
FR: that very same distance, I believe has enriched our work, even thou we both listen almost the same artists and musicians, we have very different and marked influences due to the things each of us has experienced in our lives in this long distance
 
How do you and F compliment each other?
What are your strengths –what are his –both  in the process of working together and musically/skill-wise.
JR:I think F and I complement each other quite well and in a very comical way. We have such different personalities, that sometimes it’s a miracle things work.  I am more on the uptight side of things, I get really serious about stuff, and get stressed a lot about them, F is way more relaxed, not to say he does’t take it seriously, but he has a way of believing everything will be great at the end…weather he’s stressing about and not showing it, I do not know.  ;-)
But musically, I have more experience in working and arranging pieces of music, the knowledge of harmonic and theory concepts in music I handle pretty well, F, is more like if it sounds good who freaking cares????......which I happen to be more oriented to that end of things after working in this project.  F, strength lies in the fact of how creative he can be, and the fact he can pull a melody out of his head and sing over whatever musical idea is playing he’s good at creating melodies and that fact that the bastard is very very in tune all the time!!!
 
FR: since we play as kids, we had a great understanding of each other and now as grown ups, musically that mutual understanding is even more so. In fact I still feel as if we were playing like we did as kids and that makes this process much fun. We have very different personalities, and that helps a lot in the creative process.
 
…is there any favorites tracks? can you tell me what it is that you really like about it? –either the song elements (lyrics, composition, ...),  or the particular process you went through for that track (or both)?
JR: I think one of my favorite track in the album is Secret lives of Trees and Dressing like a God…..
For secret , I was looking for a dark sound, almost gritty and earthy, and I found some sampled loops that I like I started playing around with them, then added layers of souds and played keyboards and drums on top of that. The lyrics, came as something I wrote actually months before, and it was this poem about trees….or an attempt to write a poem..i don’t’ consider myself a poet…I just like to write things down…trees, have always been here, no matter how many changes humanity have gone thru, trees have been there, and hopefully will be here once we leave…..so I imagine that they had a whole life that we are not aware of, because as in “lord of the rings’, the Ents, those trees that walk and talk….they move pretty slow!
;-)
Dressing like a god, is in part due to my feverish listening of some pieces of David Sylvian, I wanted to do some tunes in 3/4 time, since I know F, love that time signature..
 
 I started playing some drums, in 3/4 time, then with that as a base, I started playing chords, to see what I could come up with….I end up playing the whole thing, is one of the few tunes that all instruments are actually played, there are no loops …..so that was an accomplishment.  Thou you can mention here also how Landscapes in A truck, F, wanted to keep it instrumental, and I insisted that a voice singing about longings and landscapes would work great..he refused, I insisted….at the end I was right!
 
F.R: I wouldn’t be able to say which is my favorite, each tunes has a Story and a enriching creative process. But I concur with J, in regards “landscapes in a truck”.. J, insisted and obliged me to create a vocal melody to it, and I have to say, the result was wonderful!!
 
Is there a theme or a thread that runs through the whole project?
J.R:At the core of the work  or what could remain in the center of the pieces or the music we try to make is “emotions”, we experiment in terms of trying to convey emotions thru sounds, and lyrics, no matter what emotions are there, nor if they are related to one another..
We just put them together, the listener would or wouldn’t indentify with them, or all of them, or certain ones or none at all.
I think , because a friend ,who's a poet, have mentioned this to me before, is that the music we do is very “visual”, and awakens some images of sorts…almost soundtrack like, which is accurate, we both love films, and F in fact works in the Film industry as well as Andres, his young brother, Landscapes in a Truck, is a tune that appears in a documentary by the same name by Andres.  
F.R: we attempt that the music has that visual impact, when you hear a chord or lyrics, it strikes something in you and that takes you to wherever your imagination allows you to go.
 

 
 
Can you say a few words about the style or “feel” or mood of this album?   J.R:The songs have serious depth as well.  I think the more prevalent theme is that of Nostalgia, longing. I believe it could be all due to the fact that both F and I are immigrants, we both live far away from our homes, families, …and from each other, far away from places that we both enjoyed as kids, and also that sensation of those childhood days that wont come back….we had a great childhood, we were really creative in making stuff, very fantastic and adventurous highly influenced by our readings,movies, comic books and the music we listened to , so I feel that the music is a maturity of all those feelings together into this new way of expressing ourselves thru this medium.
 
F.R:Nostagia, is the the perfect adjective to describe this album. A famed Colombian writer and poet, Angela Becerra , defined nostalgia as “an inflammation of the past that grows and grows when we feel our present is becoming empty”. Recalling our past is useful to relive things, to stop and float above known waters. It’s great to look back to our lives and remember a great past knowing that all that we have today is the “now”. And that this "now", we don’t’ know where it will take us. This album has been an exercise in remembering our childhood games, adventures and other experiences and make them a reality “now". I always relive them everytime I press “play” on the stereo!
 
 
What do you hope the listeners’ journey/experience to be like?
Do you want them to feel the unveiling of each song individually as you go along?
are there any current inspirations…for this specific duo/album/style of music that you’d like to be mentioned? 
J.R:
it woud be great if a listener forms it's own concept and emotions on a particular feel, I don't want to tell the listener, hey, this is a sad song, someone broke my heart or whatnot, let them create their own stories from a particular song. I think we acomplish this by the beauty of writing in a language that is not our mother tongue. Writing in Enlgish enables me to create emotions that by the mere logical structure of the language wont be normal, but creating disparing images of sort, the end result is more a surreal representation of any given feel or emotion, that each sentence, is in itself a self contained structure when put together with the other sentences of a verse in a song, it creates a total surreal painting of what a song is about.....
I think most musical inspirations for this album I could definitely mention David Sylvian as the biggest one, as well as Nils Petter Molvaer, Perry Blake, perhaps some Dead Can Dance, a little bit of everything, film composers such as Ennio Morricone, for example, but to me some musical ideas come after an emotion arise from watching a scene from a movie or reading a great line from a fabulous book ….
 
But I think all those bands, that we listened as kids have a slight appearance there, Queen, Saga, Simon and Gartfunkel, Camel, Yes, Genesis(with Peter Gabriel)and many more
 

F.R: inspirations??? Phew, too many, I think it’s better if people visit our pages,www.virb.com/romanus &  www.myspace.com/romanusmusic then there they read about our influences, other wise this would a long interview!!

blogcritics-review

Music Review: Roman(US) - The Secret Lives of Trees
Written by Manny Hernandez
Published July 20, 2007
Blogcritics



The sound of water... drops falling, in a cascade... foggy woods, in a distant land... these are all feelings that the latest project by Roman(US) evokes with ease. Roman(US) is a duo not unlike The Postal Service, in the sense that it was the result of a long distance musical collaboration. Like their Venezuelan colleagues Masseratti 2Lts, Roman(US), is a family project: on one side, there is Jose Duque (also well known for his work with ZumbaTres), who lives in New Hampshire; on the other side, there is Felix Duque, Jose's cousin, who lives in Barcelona Spain.

The Secret Lives of Trees came as a surprise. It is a complete departure from Jose's previous (jazz) work, falling more under the category of ambient or electronic. The uniquely high-pitched voice of Felix gives the album a very ethnic feel which, coupled with the layers of synthesizers and programmed (yet highly organic-sounding) rhythms, bring Deep Forest, Enigma, and Robert Miles to mind. However, the end result comes closer to serving as the score to a very surreal dream than an actual world music album. Think Massive Attack meets Jeff Buckley and maybe you will come close.

In the end, this is an amazing album to play with low lights, at night or when you need to have music not get in the way, but rather go along... to let you dream it, almost without thinking. For now, the album is available online at CDBaby and iTunes. For more information, visit the band’s MySpace page and VIRB page

Review @ the WIRE magazine

Roman(US) Written by Matt Kanner
Wednesday, 18 July 2007
"The Secret Lives of Trees"
The debut release from Roman(US) represents the culmination of a musical partnership that bridges two continents and unites two ambitious artists with tight family bonds. The band consists of Seacoast resident Jose Duque and his cousin, Felix Duque, who lives across the Atlantic in Barcelona, Spain. Although they are separated by a vast ocean, their shared musical vision places them side by side on “The Secret Lives of Trees.”
Jose and Felix began playing music together while they were still in high school in their native Venezuela. After graduating, they went their separate ways, continuing to play music with various projects, but never collaborating. Only in February 2006 did the cousins decide to merge their creative impulses and make a CD together. The Wire’s RPM Challenge provided the inspiration, defying the duo to write and record an entire album in just 28 days.
The Duque clan rose to the occasion, claiming its distinction as the only band in the ’06 Challenge to record an album over the Internet while living on separate continents. Numerous bands followed their lead in 2007, when the RPM Challenge went global and drew more than 2,400 participants, 870 of whom completed CDs. Once again, Roman(US) was among those who crossed the finish line, writing ambient electronic music through the borderless channels of the Internet.
Roman(US) has combined its output from both RPM Challenges to produce “The Secret Lives of Trees,” an hour-long, 13-track CD of experimental music. Referring to themselves as J. Roman and F. Roman, the two cousins sent tracks back and forth over the Web, heightening the creative impetus that fueled their collaboration. Both musicians contributed keyboard parts, sampling and programming, while Jose added V-drums, ocean harp and air-synth, and Felix pitched in vocals.
Jose Duque is a familiar name on the Seacoast, where he has played drums with a spectrum of local artists. His Latin jazz band, Zumbatres, released its last album, “Far Away,” in fall 2006. At the time it was released, Jose said he was interested in veering toward a more techno-based, dance-oriented style of jazz. With “The Secret Lives of Trees,” it is clear that the drummer has thrust himself in that direction.
The 13 mood-driven songs on “Trees” float listeners along surreal streams and brooks of the subconscious. From the opening drizzles of keyboard notes, the album evokes an illustrative haze of introspection. Each instrumental part contributes to an enveloping resonance, and lush vocals drift through the turgid stratosphere of sound.
But extended listening gradually imbues a sense of monotony. Although the band intended the CD to induce 13 distinct and colorful moods, the overall effect is a relatively continuous mood of spellbound sedation. There are no toe-tappers to be found on the disc, and there is little variation to the brooding, electronic undercurrent. The entrancing atmosphere seems appropriate for an I-Max feature or some other artistic visual display, but it is not exceedingly danceable or audibly arousing on its own.
Nevertheless, the new disc will find an appreciative audience among listeners who enjoy ambient trance or new age music. The vocals are stirring at times, and each track is interspersed with fascinating instrumental bits. The music and lyrics are rife with spirituality, putting the listener in a dreamlike frame of mind.
The disc’s second track, “Landscapes in a Truck,” is the theme for a film of the same title, written by Felix’s brother, Andres Duque. Guest instrumentalist Russ Grazier plays saxophone on “Dressing Like a God” and “28 Days.” “Portsmouth-Barcelona” and “28 Days,” which appear as tracks nine and 10, refer to the unique manner in which the album was created.
On its MySpace account, Roman(US) cites a wide range of influences, including Bjork, Air, David Byrne, Tori Amos, Radiohead, Queen, The Beatles, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave. The mix of modern and decades-old influences reflects the Duque cousins’ aspirations to grow by building on ever-evolving traditions and implementing numerous styles. The band intends to produce more music in the near future, and it will be interesting to chart its stylistic development.
“The Secret Lives of Trees” is available online at CDBaby and iTunes. For more information, visit the band’s MySpace page at www.myspace.com/romanusmusic and www.virb.com/romanus
THE WIRE

Ying & Yang-reviews are coming in

ying and yang

Hola J&F! You have put a great spell on me. Every time I hear your music something very spiritual enters me and I am swept away into another dimension. This is far from "earthly" music. It is an experience of the universe...and I have been captured and recaptured time after time. There is magic in your musical journeys that I haven't found anywhere else. I also have never heard anything so balanced in opposite emotions! They seem to float side by side, sometimes intertwining and weaving their way through the very core of my being. There is no darkness without light. There is no joy without sorrow. They would not be recognized... And we would not see the difference. I am still amazed how you have combined the yin and yang of the universe and how powerful it is. You have succeeded in doing something no one else I know has done to this extent and depth!
My upmost respect, Maria Claire,
Safed, Israel