Since the
beginning of 2024 there have been just many more synchronicities than I can
count now. As a matter of fact, one more has just happened. I’ve just looked at
the date on my laptop and it’s August 12th 2025, and I immediately
realized on this same day seven years ago, in 2018, LIGHT played “Invisible Sun”
by The Police live in downtown Buenos Aires (the whole entry is pretty much about
Sting and The Police so…) Needless to say, this isn’t consciously thought at
all. Here’s where the magic happens: events that make sense with one another
even if there’s no causal connection and one finally becomes aware of them. At
this point it could be said that it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise but yes,
it is -and always a welcomed one for that matter-.
I met Ramiro
Vargas in 2016. He got in touch with me because of my guitar lessons. His
interest was music theory more than anything, the understanding of what’s beyond
the instrument itself. I gave him only four lessons, one full month, then we pretty
much lost touch until 2021 when I was watching an online music festival with
musicians from Buenos Aires, being myself one of them. Machy Madco, a local
bass player known for having played with Argentine guitar legend Pappo in the
Nineties, had his spot at the festival too. The instrumental piece he presented
was really cool and the drummer caught almost my full attention. After a minute
or so I said aloud, “Why, that’s Ramiro!” When he’d told me on our first lesson
that he was a drummer, I took it for granted that he played drums for a hobby, judging
from his condition as a basically complete beginner on guitar. Well, he turned
out to be an incredibly proficient sticksman. This made me want to message him
again with an invitation to play on a new piece I was working on called “Possibilities,”
a piece that he loved when he first listened to the guide track. Machy was
invited to be the bassist and Axel Taglia, a pianist/keyboardist also from the
North Area of Grand Buenos Aires, got in charge of making my note-for-note
piano transcription real (I’ve known Axel for even longer than Ramiro through
other people and circumstances, and in the end, I’m made aware that there’s a
friendship between them too! More meaningful connections in this small world). “Possibilities”
became part of my solo album from 2022 A Matter Of Perspective.
In March 2023
I released the Scenes album, twelve original songs plus two covers for
bonus tracks, “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You” by Sting and “Wait For Sleep” by
Dream Theater. Ramiro and Machy are the ones on drums and bass respectively on
the former, making it our second collaboration together. This album also
features a song of mine from 2017, “Rogue’s Day Out.” Here’s where Nelson Alvarez
enters the picture…
Tigre is a
town which in spite of having grown into quite a big city in a way, the essence
of what it’s always been remains intact. Part of that essence is that somehow
we all know each other. I don’t remember precisely when it was that I met
Nelson but he’s friends with other friends and acquaintances of mine. If there’s
a Birthday party thrown by, say, my friend Juani, Nelson’s almost always there
jamming with everyone. These jams and concerts at garages and backyards showed
me he’s a very competent musician. “Rogue’s Day Out” was the first time he and I
worked together, a straight-up, fast-paced Rock n’ Roll tune with riffs I originally
provided for Desamparados, a local band I was a member of in 2005-2006. I wrote
my own lyrics for the renewed version and knew Nelson would do a fine job on
bass; I was right.
By the end of
2024 “The Visit,” one of the most meaningful songs that came out of me, had its
final guitars laid down. Its importance lies in the fact that the song was
written after I came back from San Luis, the province where Sara, my late
girlfriend, lived half of her life and where she now rests. It was in October
2024 that I travelled there for the first time to meet her parents, Mary and Héctor,
personally (up to that point I only had texts chats and phone calls through
WhatsApp with Mary alone) and be of emotional support to them on October 18th,
what would’ve been Sara’s 33rd Birthday.
I once took a
pic of my Overdrive OD-3 BOSS pedal and shared it on Facebook to let my
audience know about the most important element on my pedalboard. It turned out
Sara had the exact same piece of gear! I smiled in surprised amusement when Mary
showed me this device. "Please, take anything you want with you,
dear" she said. Among other now treasured belongings, her OD-3 came on
board with me for the flight back to Buenos Aires. A song saved for the future
that I was working on around late 2023/early 2024 has a few lines from a poem
Sara had written to me. When she read the final lyric, she replied "You've
fused us with this song." Now the sound that comes from my electric guitar
has both of us fused in this other way too.
“The Visit”
was of course the first piece of music to not only have the two OD-3’s on but
also a kind of preamp pedal she also had. Cajita (Little Box) is the name of
the brand, something that it’s always on now because of how much it enhances my
overall guitar tone. And last but not least, her capo came to Buenos Aires with
me too. Placing it on the 2nd fret of my old nylon-stringed guitar,
the very first one from 2000 when I first started taking lessons, let the magic
happen: a friendly Celtic riff came out, then the song kept on being developed
until its ultimate form; another Sara & Claudio song, as well as her
parents’, in this special case (the first one is “Spirit Wanderers” from June
2024).
In December
of that year, I invited Ramiro to record the drums for “The Visit.” He was
eager to take part in such an important song after he read the story behind it.
It had to be finished and released before May given that I was going back to
San Luis again for a second visit during that month’s second week (May 10th
is both the day of Sara’s passing in 2024 and Mary’s Birthday) and I wanted the
song to be ready, the most appropriate soundtrack for the three of us. By
February, Ramiro’s top-notch take was sent to me so I could compose and add the
bass track, and afterwards, the whole keyboard arrangement. The definitive version
of “The Visit” ended up being released on April 22nd 2025, on Earth
Day (Sara had nothing but total devotion and appreciation for nature). This
wasn’t preconceived either. While lying in bed after waking up that Tuesday
morning, I felt that was the right day to make the song public. Only on June 11th,
a month and a half later, a conversation with my ex-student Tomás Guala made me
realize that exactly ten years before, April 22nd 2015, my Canadian VISITOR
visa had been approved. This is how I was able to see Rush live for the third
and last time, now in their hometown of Toronto (anyone reading this is
welcomed to also read the LIGHT Rush tribute concert entry from 2024. Sara and
I reconnected through our love for Rush and it was that which finally led us to
discover we’ve always been soulmates).
“The Visit”
has been so well received by many people who went to Bandcamp and listened to
it there. One recurrent comment from quite a few was that they were surprised
at how lively and upbeat the track is. Knowing what it’s all about, they were
expecting something melancholic, perhaps even gloomy to a certain degree. My
reply is always the same: what happened between Sara and I was perfectly sweet,
strong and beautiful even if it was for almost four months only. What was
channelled when writing the piece couldn’t be any other thing than bliss and
gratefulness for the love we got to share before her untimely passing.
Four days
after the work Ramiro and I did together was published, he sent me a WhatsApp
message with the idea of us doing something together live at a local venue. I
immediately thought up two types of presentation, 1) A Sting/Police show and 2)
A Delgift/ONE setlist with original songs from both of our solo catalogues (ONE
is Marian, my brother and LIGHT’s keyboardist). The second one wasn’t given the
green light by Marian himself, he wanted to be away from any kind of live setting
for the whole of 2025. So, Option #1 was the way to go. The only missing piece
was the bass player and when I picked up the phone to call Nelson, he answered,
listened to my full explanation and invitation and simply said, “Yes, I’m in. Besides,
I’ve got enough free time these days;” definitely music to my ears.
Machy is the
one in charge of the artists’ agenda at Museo de la Reconquista (Reconquest
Museum) where the Santiago de Liniers Auditorium was built. It could be either
Ramiro or myself the one to get in touch with him and ask for a date to confirm
the event. I messaged Machy and gave him a thorough explanation as to why I thought
it was best if the gig happened by mid-July, close to Winter Holidays down here
in the South hemisphere but not actually when they begin. His cut-to-the-chase
reply was, “Friday August 8th,” to which I replied back, “My
Birthday;” that’s more synchronicity for ya.
What follows
is the final setlist…
Walking
On The Moon (short
instrumental intro)/Message
In A Bottle
If
I Ever Lose My Faith In You
Every
Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Be
Still My Beating Heart (guitar/vocals
intro, chorus only)/Fortress
Around Your Heart
Driven
To Tears
The
Hounds Of Winter
Wrapped
Around Your Finger
Spirits
In The Material World
Seven
Days
Every
Breath You Take
Encore:
“Roxanne”
Putting
together pre- and post-show playlists is one of my dearest hobbies. This show
was no exception.
Pre-show
playlist (The Police):
Synchronicity
I & II
(Live in Atlanta, Synchronicity Concert - 1983)
Bring
On The Night
(Live at Orpheum WBCN, Boston broadcast - 1979)
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da (Live in Buenos Aires, Certifiable - 2007)
It’s
Alright For You
(Regatta De Blanc - 1979)
Oh,
My God
(Synchronicity - 1983)
One
World (Not Three)
(Ghost In The Machine - 1981)
Post-show
playlist (Sting):
Englishman
In New York (…Nothing
Like The Sun - 1987)
Love
Is The Seventh Wave
(The Dream Of The Blue Turtles - 1985)
The
Soul Cages
(The Soul Cages - 1991)
The
Last Ship
(The Last Ship - 2013)
Let’s go back
to June 11th for a minute or two… Nelson was supposed to come home
for one of the rehearsals as a duo, prior to joining Ramiro the following
month, on Tuesday June 10th. On June 11th 2015 I got on
board on the first of two airplanes that were going to take me to Canada. The
first scale was Lima, Peru. A Peruvian online friend, Mirella, picked me up at
the airport in the late afternoon and took me across the city with her friend
Ariana. Before going back to the airport, we lingered at her apartment and
jammed over the isolated drum track for “Walking On The Moon,” she on bass and
me on guitar while Ariana filmed us. That jam yielded an instrumental version
of this Police classic in which I played all of the vocal melodies on guitar.
Exactly ten years later, Nelson, who was supposed to come home the day before
to rehearse that same arrangement for what I considered to be a big event I was
looking forward to, actually showed up the next day, Wednesday June 11th
2025 (his schedule for Tuesday got all messy and we had to reprogramme). “Walking
On The Moon,” with that same arrangement I’d come up with ten years ago, was chosen
as the show opener from the get-go. When I told all this to him -let alone I
was able to make the connection between “The Visit” release date and the date
of issue of my Canadian visitor visa earlier at midday- he was left quite in
awe.
Three rehearsals with the three of us were enough to get the material down. I booked them at Mono Records in San Fernando, Tigre’s neighbouring district, for June 30th, July 14th and August 4th, all Mondays. That first date had the coldest day of the 2025 Winter in Buenos Aires, yet we weren’t going to postpone it because of this. However, as soon as the final chord in “Message In A Bottle” was reached there was a power cut! We waited for fifteen-twenty minutes to see if it'd come back but the ones who run the place couldn’t do anything as it wasn’t on them, it was a general power cut on the block and its surroundings.
We reprogrammed for the following Monday, July 7th at 7 pm. Here another synchronicity comes… 07/07/07 had The Police playing live for the very first time in more than twenty years. Theirs was the closing act of Live Earth at Wembley Stadium in London and the prelude to the 2007-2008 reunion of the British trio. Fate had it that our first official rehearsal for this Sting/Police show was going to be exactly eighteen years later on that same day.
The concert
went really well. It cannot be denied that that audience of more than
one-hundred people had a great time dancing and singing along throughout. The
Delgift-Vargas-Alvarez Trio proved there’s chemistry between us, at least -and
so far- with songs by Sting as a solo artist and The Police as the great-great
band they were. What the future holds, I don’t exactly know. But this other
band that was spontaneously put together to, in a way, repay Ramiro for his enormous
contribution to “The Visit” and all it represents, may have just set off
something else that’s worth taking into consideration and see where it goes
from now on.
