Berlin-based, Argentinian born composer and musician Sebastian Plano started playing the cello at seven and began writing his own music at the age of eleven. This has led to his current practice from his studio in Berlin, working alone and in collaboration with some of the current greats of contemporary classical music and film, such as Nils Frahm and Boris Seewald , and receiving a Grammy nomination for his third album Verve in His music is hard to categorise, weaving threads from many different genres and influences, but it is very much his own; contemporary classical with echoes of Argentinian folk music and synth sounds.
We caught up with Sebastian on the eve of the release of his fourth album Save Me Not, as always a move in another direction. Recorded between and , he has played every note on the album himself, often distilled to just piano, cello and voice. Firstly tell us a bit more about yourself⦠Where you are from, where you are at the moment.
I was born in Rosario, a town a few hours up north of Buenos Aires in Argentina. I left home when I was seventeen years old to study abroad; first to Italy and then Boston and San Francisco. In I relocated to Berlin where I now have my studio.
Can you tell us about your musical upbringing? Yes, I come from a family of musicians, both my parents were orchestra members and my grandfather was also a composer and bandoneonist [a bandoneon is a concertina instrument similar to an accordion, which is very popular in Argentina]. He was keeping a small size cello in his closet up until I was seven years old and I started playing it. Following that I started writing music when I was twelve.
You have said before that as a young adult you were dissatisfied with the traditional curve your musical learning was taking and decided to move away from it. Tell us more about this. As an anecdote, my cello teacher at the time gave me a C- which is sort of a 42 in UK grades; I was furious. After finishing my degree, I decided to devote myself to writing music. There were a few stops along the way before landing in Berlin.
