Arturo Sampaio is a composer and pianist who creates philosophical music inspired by perfumes, aphorisms and eroticism. Don't miss our conversation with Arturo Sampaio, covering topics such as influences, composition, new EP Elestes, upcoming projects, and life.
What inspired you to pursue a career in composing music? How has your classical training at the Conservatory shaped your creative approach?
I have very few memories from my childhood. I don't know why, but I don't remember the beginning of my life. But I do remember one thing: the music I was listening to.
I was born in Chile and soon came to Brazil. I remember every song I heard during this phase of my life onwards. From Victor Jara and Inti-Illimani in Chile to Caetano Veloso’s “Fina estampa” in Brazil. Chilean and Argentinian music, Brazilian music, the classical music that my parents loved so much. Music became a way of mapping my biography. It takes me back to where I came from. It answers the questions of who I am and where I came from.
I started playing the piano when I was 5 years old. It became my creative tool. But I don't see the piano as anything more than that. It’s just a tool. It could have been any other instrument, any other medium. Poetry, sculpture, ballet. It ended up being music and the piano.
Going to the Conservatory made me open my ear to an infinite number of musical practices and aesthetics. I remember with great exactitude the day I fell in love with Villa-Lobos, with Steve Reich, with Mahler. It also made me understand that the artist is more of a worker than a dreamer. Yes, we build dreams, but until we get there, we spend a lot of time carving the angel out of the marble.
Who are your biggest influences, and how have they shaped your style?
Arvo Pärt is one of the greatest. It taught me to see music as a sacred thing. I consider myself an agnostic, but sacredness is always there for me. The most sublime music there can be is music about the incomprehensible and the unknown (which is exactly the essence of any divinity). And music is the perfect medium for those themes because it is immaterial. It is the most immaterial of the arts. When language can’t go further, music keeps going on. Music goes beyond humankind itself. It doesn’t need us to exist on Earth.
I would say that Tom Jobim is also one of my biggest influences, for being deeply Brazilian but also deeply complex and refined. Bossa nova was one of his creations and it was definitely important, but the greatest Jobim is the symphonic one, the impressionist one. I really love Janáček too. Philip Glass's symphonic works. Bach, always. Bach is the greatest of them all, he is our savior.
Photo: Tainá Ribovski
What does your creative process look like when starting a new piece? How do you decide on the direction or theme for a new project?
Schoenberg said that composition is slowed-down improvisation. Stravinsky said that music theory is retrospective perception. I compose by improvising. I use a tape recorder and just go with it. In retrospect comes the understanding of what I played, how I played it and why I played it. In retrospect comes the structuring, the form, if the piece demands to become a building with more floors or just stay as thin as a Giacometti’s sculpture.
Sometimes I try to imbue the piece with the same preciousness with which it was presented to me the first time. But it all vanishes so quickly. Life slips through our fingers so quickly.
Do you see composing as a form of therapy or self-discovery?
I see composition as a purge. A need for something to get out of me. My ear makes its demands about where I should go and how things should sound and I must be its diligent servant.
I don't see music as therapy. Composing for me is usually uncomfortable, it induces anxiety and restlessness. But it must be done. It is what I must do with the life I’ve been given.
Regarding self-discovery, I don't see myself as knowing myself better after composing. I see composition as something greater than the composer. The poet is always less important than the poetry. I just have to stay out of the way of music, to try not to ruin what my ear is demanding from me.
Can you tell us about any upcoming compositions or projects you’re working on?
I just released my first EP with my own compositions for solo piano. It's called "Elestes". There are five Elestes:
No. 1: Uma vez é nunca (Once is never)
No. 2: O que ainda não chegou é o infinito (What hasn’t arrived yet is the infinite)
No. 3: O começo se inalcança (The beginning is unreachable)
No. 4: Algo em vez de nada (Something rather than nothing)
No. 5: Tábula... (Tabula...)
Eleste is an invented word in the same tradition as Satie with his own invented words ("Gymnopédies", "Gnossienes", "Vexations"). Each Eleste deals with an unattainable idea, an unfinished philosophical problem. On the same day that I entered the studio to record Elestes, I recorded many other songs. I spent 12 hours fighting against the piano. Just like Jacob fighting against the angel of God in Genesis.
Other compositions of mine that I can mention and are yet to be released are a few "Socturnes" (paraphrasing Chopin's "Nocturnes"), a "Soliloquium" that is something like an instructive monologue about how I compose alone in my room, and “La tentativa del hombre infinito” (The attempt of the infinite man), inspired by the poetry of Pablo Neruda, with whom I share my place of birth.
There is also some Brazilian music, delicate arrangements of songs by the great geniuses Tom Jobim, Cartola, Vinícius de Moraes and Baden Powell.
These songs are all for solo piano and they will be released during 2025. In the near future I intend to record some string quartets and other orchestral suites as well.
What would you say to someone unfamiliar with your music to introduce them to your world?
An antidote to loneliness. To find beauty in melancholy. Perfumes. Eroticism. Aphorisms. Sacred music without a god. Philosophy without language. Respect for silence.
Finally, from your perspective, what is the meaning of life?
I think life has no inherent meaning.
There is only a short breath and each person will pursue what they think is worthy of having themselves pursuing. I can tell you about my life. The meaning of my life is to have something to leave behind. It’s an old idea, this idea of a legacy. Of written memories. Written feelings. Something must have happened in my childhood that everything seems to escape my eyes and my hands and I need to build something to leave behind me. I need to register my existence or else I did not exist. Just like Samuel Beckett's Molloy with time running out, rushing without stopping, as if in desperation, towards extremely close goals. But always writing. He doesn't even know why he writes. But he keeps on writing.
When I see artists I admire, I feel in debt to them for the work they did. For taking the effort to create what they created. They didn't have to do any of that. I want to repay the debt I owe them by making others in debt with me. The music I make is the music I would like to listen to. If I like listening to it, I think there might be someone out there who likes it too.
I believe that the meaning of life is to find life a meaning. All things pass, peace of mind is a fragile thing and the end is always near.