Music with no Boundaries
Boundaries go with man from birth and it will do it until man stops existing. Always fighting for land, which once conquered held no value. They were killing and burning all that they had in front of them, never trying to join cultures or to learn of different things. They were seeking to destroy everything what was unfamiliar to them, wanted to conquer the world, but then we wonder for what and why? For the power, to oppress villagers to their will, but, they did not realize that they ended up by destroying their own lives.
It was Alexander the Great, one of the few conquerors who was fascinated by the culture of villages and he sought to join them as a multi-cultural society. He want to be a part of this new world that he was discovering, respecting their beliefs, customs, rites and traditions and this sums up precisely what enriches and complements us.
The wars continued and lamentably they will continue always. Some nations grew, others disappeared. And with time the borders that we know nowadays, were established.
Now, the way of being able to conquer the world, without harming it, is travelling through it, absorbing its beauty, mixing with humanity, roaming and observing the captivation of the people, their customs and having time to penetrate into the spirit of the peoples, experiencing their essence, with its different contributions: language, rituals, creeds and traditions.
Imagine if this ambitious conqueror had dominated the entire world. Today we would be travelling a world with the same culture, the same customs and traditions, then we would not have anything to exchange, we would be in a grey and monotonous world. We would not have anything to surprise, except the geography of every place. If we were all of the same ethnic background, without caring which one it is, it would be a completely insipid world, without shades, like to see a picture of the same colour and texture.
While travelling, one learns that, in spite of the infinite races that exist, we are all human beings. There are so many things that differentiate us, but many less that separate us: we are ruled under the same feelings, love, hate, laugh, cry. We were created by the same God, some one they will call Allah, other Shiva, other Yahveh, other God and some others Energy, but definitively they all refer to the same Object.
To be in a completely unknown land, with an incomprehensible language, with traditions absolutely different or opposite to those that one is used to, its sharpens the senses in a way that we are not accustomed to, and so the blood flows with more adrenaline.
In spite of all these cultural differences, after awhile, we realize that we are all joined, laughing, clapping and singing, celebrating the dance of the life under the same language: the music. Feeling ONE inside this joyful circle, which does not have any name. Feeling all together as one, with the spirit of the music.
The Beginning
While I was travelling, I realized that the music was joining me more to the culture where I was in the moment. The music was breaking this sometimes unavoidable, but charming barrier of language. It was fusing us in unique instants that will live forever in our hearts.
Everything began some time ago, as far back as the year 2005, when I decided to make a trip carrying with my Spanish guitar, the one with which I learned to strum my first chords.
I could not believe as a few simple intonations generated so much happiness in the people. The environment was filling with enthusiasm and the guitar was travelling from hand to hand. Adults and children. They also wanted to offer us their music. Or wanted to give us something, without knowing that they were already doing it when they were giving us these sincere smiles.
Many of them probably could not strum a chord, but holding the guitar in their hands, were feeling these vibrations that only they can explain. It was fascinating to see as the guitar was passed around, being loaded with all these beautiful and wonderful energies and simultaneously with the same human emotion.
I realized, then, that with the music I could, not only conquer the world, but much more importantly, affect the soul of the inhabitants in some small way, and to verify that the noble intentions of obtaining the best thing for all, is a passport to the sublime.
Though it is for an ephemeral instant, but that will remain eternal in time, we would exchange these unique expressions, which would be stored in our hearts. It is not perhaps a gesture of love that can save humanity in order that there is peace and happiness on the land!?
The Trip
The main idea of this stage would be to begin in the Southeast Asia: Hong Kong, South of China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and The Philippines, for an indefinite time. The order of the countries can change.
The trip is planned approximately for the beginning of May of 2008, after working during the winter season in Andorra.
We are two friends that seek through the music to fill our backpack with all those smiles that we could gather along this intense peregrination.
We know that we are not going to achieve universal peace (it would be very pretentious) but in this trip towards the appointment with the humanity, we will try to demonstrate that the inspired sounds and the music that affects the soul, can help to pacify the spirit and to raising it, and to opening the heart of the people that we invite to believe that also there is another way of co-existing, without hatred, without resentment, and it is through happiness that gives us the music as a universal language.
Who We Are
We are Luis Salazar and Matías de Blas. Two folks who mend our friendship many years ago. We share happiness, sadness, and hundreds of anecdotes that friends share.
Of simple companions from school, we have forged an inseparable friendship, not physical since that in many occasions, for the whims of destiny, we have been separated, but in spite of these “distances”, it seemed that our friendship was becoming increasingly solid.
They say that all things happen in the right moment to which they have to happen, and this is the moment that our so longed for trip together increasingly starts to take form.
