When artists who have a detailed classical music background decide to reach into what are considered more ‘current’ musical forms, they usually come with music that doesn’t have much connection to pop – post-rock, ambient or other forms that do touch some base with classical music (modern, or otherwise).
Only a few seem to venture into ‘pure’ pop, and still their compositional capabilities to spring out in the mmusic they come up with.
That is now the case with Pol Sembrano, a Filipino-American composer and classically trained pianist from Seattle who has recently decided to step out of his comfort zone into electro-pop on his new EP Anywhere, a precursor to his upcoming self-titled-album.
Here, Sembrano roots himself firmly in the eighties (and nineties) version then developed by electro-pop legends like Depeche Mode and New Order at the same time focusing on the use of vintage synths that characterised that sound. And yes, that dance element is prominent within the four songs here.
Yet, with all his classical background, Sembrano doesn’t seem or feel strange in the electro-pop surroundings he came up with here.
I have always been confident in myself as a musician and by writing, producing, arranging and performing on my own. I am a classically trained pianist, but I am also inspired by other genres of music, in this case electronic/dance music. This provides a whole new dimension in my music persona as I do not wish to be categorised as “this or that type of artist”.
Whatever Sembrano did or will do within his ‘natural’ classical music background, this electro-pop guise seems to suit him quite well.
