• i found this work in a dream.

    This album is entitled "transformation & light". It is a mystical work, whose concepts came to me in a dream after my father's passing. It is hard to put into words, perhaps easier to put to music. I hope you enjoy this body of work.

  • Transformation & Light – Emilio Portal 8.5/10

    In what is perhaps his most touching and focused work yet, Emilio Portal’s transformation & light is a 10-track record with each piece ranging between 10 and 17 minutes. Portal’s beloved tape loops, sequenced synth phrases, avoidance of hooks, and a backdrop of glitchy stuttering effects are juxtaposed with introspective guitars and pianos. The result is an emotive, vulnerable record which asks us to slow down with it and then gives us the resolve to go on. Music box leitmotifs focus echo throughout the record, sometimes acting as a calm lullaby, other times whirling us through space, always acting as a marker for the passing of time. Seemingly random but never disjointed rhythms evolve endlessly and take us on a journey. They keep us involved in the narrative path of the pieces but never disturb us. Through the haze, there is much light; an unusual turn for the artist who has previously preferred to piled on auditory chaos and with great success. quantum breath is fresh luminescent air filling your lungs while the opening chants of things moved in a dream are a solemn call urging the listener to carry on after suffering a great loss. Samples of soulful music punctuate the reverie like a radio left on overnight and redirect our attention for brief, carefully chosen moments of clarity. This is not a fever dream, it is a trance, sent from beyond as if to relay a message. Perhaps that is not so strange, since as Portal explains, his compositions “came to [him] in a dream after [his] father’s passing”. While listening, we are asleep with him, lucid dreaming only to wake up and wonder if it might not have been real after all. 

    +michel laforge

  • This deeply personal and evocative collection of songs marks a defining moment in Tamara's artistic evolution, offering listeners an immersive exploration of healing, self-discovery, and the connection between the two in relation to humanity and the natural world.

    Project Blue blends bold, sultry storytelling with a lush, sonorous soundscape. At its heart, the album pulses with the understanding that personal healing is inseparably linked to the well-being of the planet. The courage to confront inner wounds mirrors the resilience the Earth demands as it bears the weight of human impact.

    Through six original tracks—including Blue, Lit Up, Breathing Tree, My Wish & Mars—Tamara and Emilio craft a rich tapestry inviting listeners to embark on a transformative journey of self-reflection and environmental awareness.

    Project Blue is not just an album; it is an invitation—a call to pause, to listen, and to embrace the intricate interplay between personal growth and environmental stewardship. With its fusion of soul-stirring poetic introspection and ethereal composition, the album stands as a testament to the power of music as a vehicle for both individual and collective healing.

    credits

    released March 21, 2025
    lyrics, vocals, composer: Tamara Parker
    music, composer, producer, engineer: Emilio Portal

  • I wanted like to create a full-length album that features local underrepresented BIPOC, queer, women and Francophone musicians and poets that revolve around the concept of magnetism. A lot of people that live or grew up in Sudbury (Robinson-Huron Treaty territory / Atikameksheng Anishnaabek) talk about the area's magnetic force. Many people leave, but somehow end up returning (myself included)! Most people believe that this magnetism is the result of the 1.8 billion year old meteor that struck here, and created the Sudbury basin. This is also the reason why there is such an abundance of precious minerals in the area, which have attracted various mining corporations to the area to extract. In comparison to the ancient meteor, the immensely short time span of colonialism and capitalism in the area has had such a dramatic impact that it has left forests decimated, watersheds contaminated, and emitted airborne pollution internationally. And yet, the mining industry supports thousands of families that live here.

    Magnetism is the first of many musical projects that aims to foster, highlight and promote artists and musicians that get little recognition in our community. Poet Daniel Aubin, mc & producer Yonas Gebrekristose, singer/songwriter Lisa Marie Naponse, musician & producer Patrick Pillah, vocalist and actor ER Simbagoye, and singer/songwriter Fionna Tough are all featured on Magnetism. My aim was to create 6 collaborative compositions with each of the artists, along with another 6 unique compositions that would expand their performances in an experimental manner through creative resampling, looping and synthesis. 

    credits



    Tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13: improvised performance by Emilio Portal

    The Fielding Road:
    lyrics and vocal performance by Daniel Aubin
    music and production by Emilio Portal

    Deadly Attraction:
    lyrics and vocal performance by Lisa Marie Naponse
    music and production by Emilio Portal

    Take Me Away:
    lyrics and vocal performance by Yoni
    music and production by Emilio Portal

    Underground:
    lyrics and vocal performance by Polly Kultur
    music and production by Emilio Portal

    We Go:
    lyrics and vocal performance by PA.ii
    music and production by PA.ii & Emilio Portal

    Mixing and Mastering by Emilio Portal

    Album cover by Emilio Portal

    Supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario.

    released February 1, 2025

  • this isn't really an album, but rather an evolving archive of synth, ambient, sound art, drone and/or tape music performances that i have created since early 2023. i will be continuously adding new performances at the top of the track list. every performance varies in method or process, if any at all. there is no special theme or concept, only full out experimentation in whatever direction the sound moves. these are more conversations between myself, sound and the world around me. i understand them more as sonic poetry, spontaneous expressions, emotional reaction, therapy, meditations, protests, revolutions, theories, laments, sound tests, discussions, drawings, sculptures, videos, love letters...

    credits

    January 13, 2024

    audio signal processing, audio signal poetics: emilio portal

  • has been stewing for over a year. Max & Emilio's collaboration is one that is rooted in spontaneity, wonder and respect. Their process was pretty much devoid of any stylistic or musical references, which has led them into a strange colliding world that mixes elements of sci-fi, psychedelia, 1970s synthesis, funky beats, and brutally honest and lucid poetry.

    The album is organized in an alternating fashion between electronic-sampling-tape-loop-synthesis experiments, and experimental hip hop compositions in order to give the listener a cascading experience.

    The sonic and poetic landscape that emanates is definitely influenced by their experience growing up in an intense industrial and creative centre in Northern Ontario. As teenagers, Max and Emilio knew one another and spent much time during their formative years in and our of various arts and music circles. Their shared, yet mostly unspoken, histories are distilled here.

    credits

    released June 23, 2023

    autoscopy, cerebellum, intimacy:
    max moon & emilio portal collaboration

    salmoneus, fault lines, watercolours & pastels, spirit so severe:
    max moon - lyrics, vocal performance
    emilio portal - music

    particles:
    emilio portal - music


    Co-produced by Max Moon & Emilio Portal.

    Mixing & Mastering by Emilio Portal.

  • This album was conceived in 2022 as a gesture of solidarity with the Bennett Lake area, which is part of Laurentian University's Greenspace. My family and I have spent thousands of hours hiking these pristine boreal forest trails. We have experienced much joy, peace and sublime poetic exchanges. Bennett Lake has given us so much, yet very few people recognize its beauty and ecological importance.

    In these 27 performances, you will experience a vast array of sounds, field recordings, synthesizers and sonic methodologies. Many of these performances utilize a technique known as a destructive or disintegrating tape loop. These types of loops are very intriguing to me because they both linger and fade, which is a phenomenon that I see in the forest a lot.

    This album was supported by the Ontario Arts Council through their Northern Arts Project program. Thank you very much!

    Thank you my partner Elyse, our son Teo, and our dog Pacha for the continuous love, poetic perspectives, companionship and fun in the forest!

    performances, field recordings, synthesis, tape loops, mixing & mastering by emilio portal

    released June 16, 2023

COLLABS

  • 135 minutes of synthesizer communication between shane cinq-mars & emilio portal.

    credits

    released April 12, 2023

    shane cinq-mars: modular synthesizers, moog grandmother.
    emilioportal: korg minilogue xd, recording, mixing, mastering.

  • 82 minutes digital and analog synthesis improvisation between patrick harrop and emilio portal.

    recorded on march 15, 2023 at emilio portal's studio.

    credits

    released March 20, 2023

    arturia minifreak: patrick harrop

    korg minilogue xd: emilio portal

    mastering: emilio portal

  • released February 8, 2023

    a fully improvised synthesizer session by michel laforge & emilio portal, aka dinosaur juice.

    recorded on february 8, 2023 at elp sound action.

  • all works were made at the banff centre in november & december 2022, during my residency there, as part of <the weapon of theory as a conference of birds>.

    i see these works as performances, rather than compositions. each performance is recorded in real-time, much like how music was done when recording to tape or vinyl. the mixing process is established prior to the performances through practice runs. once all the sonic parameters are dialed in to where i like them, i am free to create and capture whatever happens.

    i have established, and am constantly refining my process or method. this way of working always involves a root sound source like an ocarina, drum machine, synthesizer or field recording. my performance of these instruments are then sent through a custom effects and tape loop signal chain, which i can modify in detail during the performance/recording session.

    during my stay at the banff centre, i also did a lot of writing, photography, walking and had many studio visits to discuss my thoughts and process. this time helped to clarify and focus. this time helped me to see and understand what are the most pressing things for me: sonic advocacy for deep time, vulnerability and indigeneity. for me, rhythms and loops are all-powerful entities, which have been severely disrespected and cheapened in our modern world. rhythm has been used as a trick to lure people in, then spit them out after the 3 minute exchange. i argue that rhythm is much more potent than that, and that its historic use in indigenous cultures around the world was and still is focused around longevity, duration, ritual, wisdom and trance.

    this is definitely where i go when i perform music.

    i hope you will enjoy and feel enriched by these works, which are truly collaborations with sound, which is a nonhuman, an entity.

    + emilio portal

  • An on-going commission for my friend RX Neufeld, which investigates the place where he grew up: Red Lake, Ontario.

    album

    2022


  • a series of improvised performances collected over the past few months (August to October, 2022), and organized in a randomly generated manner for your listening therapy.

    album

    2022

  • kladon stellaris has been cooking for many months now.

    it revolves around a field recording i took of my hand touching star-tipped cup lichen, a very important food source for caribou.

    this album contains 8 diverse compositions.

    i sincerely hope you enjoy these contemplative and poetic sounds, which points to our entanglement and interconnected reality with all beings, including our fungus friends.

    this album was made possible by the support of the ontario arts council, through its music recording project grant.

    album

    2021

  • Crunch is a deeply rhythmic, subtle, meditative, yet gritty album that was created with field recordings I took during walks in the woods with my son during the pandemic.

    2020