If the summer has you sweating buckets and missing the beach, then Silverfilter’s newest release, Arcadia, is for you. It’s a ten track chillout music that the artist—Cyril Sorongon in real life—likes to imagine as a two-sided record: the first half is chill out, the second half, lounge. But these labels blur. All ten tracks are perfect summer jams that flow from one to the next. They easily have you imagining you’re somewhere else other than in your drab office cube, the hells of EDSA or [insert your version of hell here].
More important than being an awesome summer release, Arcadia is also proudly OPM—as in the tracks you hear on this record are all original and all produced by the 34-year-old EMD artist who, by the way, established the Electronica Manila hub way back in 2001.
We say Arcadia is your best bet for sunset happy hour tunage. It’s a neatly tied release that builds up into a most relaxing hum.
Coconuts Manila talks to Silverfilter about the record, the scene, and OPM.
First, we’re sure Silverfilter isn’t your real name.
My name is Cyril Sorongon.
Where did the moniker Silverfilter come from?
I was a writing major so I went for alliteration knowing that those “er” repeats would sound catchy hehe finding the words to use was the challenge. “Filter” is an essential stage in sculpting sound and well, “silver” just seemed like a nice fit for me to make it sound a bit edgy too. But seriously, I came up with the name coming out of the shower while wiping my head like it just popped into my head
You mentioned it took Arcadia years. When did you first lay tracks for the record?
Well, one of the tracks entitled “Losing,” is a re-release from an indie EP I did in 2003 so I guess that’s the first one, technically-speaking. I didn’t specifically write “Losing” for the record but I included it because of the response people had with that track on the EP. I remember most of them were around 04-06
How do you write electronic music? Do you start with beats or the hook? Do you have an image in mind, or a sensation, because we’re getting a lot of beach sunset vibration here.
I’m glad that it gave you that imagery so I guess it works, hehe. I usually start with beats. That’s like 98% of the time. Sometimes I use beat guides that I intend to change later on, too. There are rare times that I start with a hook or a nice vocal sample that inspired me. It’s also rare that I think of a scene first before producing. Most of the time it’s the reverse. I name the track based on what images it brings to mind once I play back a working draft of it.
You established ElectronicaManila in 2001—at that point, how long have you been doing this electronic music thing? Why did you feel that such an organization was needed in the scene? How was the scene like back then?
I’ve been into it since ’98. Back then, we didn’t have YouTube so we didn’t have much to go, in terms of learning so I felt it best to learn from peers but since we didn’t know who did what locally, I knew that getting everybody together would be beneficial for everyone. That’s how EM started.
How different is it from now?
I can only speak for EM but I’d say the scene back then was more diverse. Our mailing list was very vibrant and very active then. Outside EM these days, it’s a bit more grouped or clique-ish. Some see it a good thing, some as a bad thing. There are DEFINITELY more players today as electronic music, specifically EDM, has become the new “pop.” Everybody wants to jump into it now. Personally I miss the diversity before. Are there better artists? Ya of course. Technology has made it easier and took things further for sure. But the explosion of electronic music in the pop world somehow made it possible to hear very generic sounding electronic music too because everybody wants to make the same famous styles and sounds. Before, it was really all over the place and you really can drown in the various styles that were on offer and it was great!
You said the theme of this record is OPM. Is there a unique OPM sound in the chillout/lounge genre? How can you tell that something is OPM?
I guess I was just stressing it too much in my excitement but my point really was that as a Filipino, I just wanted the album to be something as it is somewhat the first of its kind locally where we have a chillout album that’s 1) bot a compilation and, 2) made by a Pinoy. Because for sure, go around the record bars and you won’t see one like it 🙂 I really can’t say if there’s an OPM sound in chillout and I won’t dare say that there is in mine as I would admit that my inspirations were all foreign. Which circles back to the way I push the album because we can finally find a Pinoy-made chillout album when we look for one.
The OPM term is another can of worms haha but I’ll just say that it’s OPM if a Pinoy makes it and it’s ORIGINAL and not some “I hear it everyday in the jeepney cover song by some local celebrity” track. I’m sick of covers.
I was curious about the chill out side and the lounge side. Is there a difference between the two?
Maybe that’s just me but if you listen to tracks 1-5 it’s really dreamy, slow, atmospheric, etc that I call more chillout. The 2nd half has a little bit more spunk and vibe to it like lounge music that is just steady but not too relaxed to make you sleepy.
How is Arcadia best enjoyed?
May ka-holding hands, haha! But seriously, I guess it depends. Sunset, beer in hand, when dawn breaks, on the beach, during a traffic jam—they’re perfect. I’ve tried it to cool down while in traffic and it works. I guess with the way I programmed it, it’s best during sunset when you just want to relax as it sets and just builds up a certain vibe once the night hits.
Photo by Funky Karma, courtesy of Silverfilter
Arcadia (PHP300) is available at silverfilter.com. In May, it will be available at Fullybooked.
