⏩ Nearly 30 years after its release, Jorge González’s second solo album, El futuro se fue, has become a cult classic. Its bold fusion of genres, which once bewildered fans and critics alike, is now hailed as a brave sonic exploration. A NO Jorge González and the most particular REVIEW of his most personal work, by Gerardo Figueroa Rodríguez in NOISE is the Message.

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🎚️ Signal Flow =⏩⫸
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█ TRIPLE Conversation: The FUTURE is gone. A NO Jorge González and the most particular REVIEW of his most personal work, 30 years after its release, by Gerardo Figueroa Rodríguez in NOISE is the Message.

👉 El FUTURO se Fue, Jorge González, Chilean cult album, experimental music

«Over the years, [El futuro se fue] has gained a lot of respect […] what’s in there is honest, brave, and what I truly had to show.»

—| JORGE GONZÁLEZ

🖖🏽 El futuro se fue: 30 years after its release

Those of us who listened to the work just weeks after its release could not help but be amazed at this unprecedented and surprising display of creativity. Personally, any uncertainty regarding the compositional capacity, exploratory spirit, and risky disposition of its author and performer quickly disappeared, making it one of my go-to albums for years, one of those I would have loved to create.

Needless to say, an experience of this nature, handled by any independent artist in a developed industry, would have easily found its place within its market niche. But the fact that a mainstream Chilean pop music icon deliberately chose this path, renegotiating a contract that allowed him to remodel a house, set up a home studio with cutting-edge technology, mix in one of Europe’s most expensive studios (Real World, in Bath, United Kingdom), and keep the recordings a constant secret speaks of a clarity that reveals the true starting point of its author. Contrary to what has been claimed by the media, the press, and various academic studies, it distances itself greatly from the musical-sound aspect, delving fully into the artistic-conceptual.

This paradigm shift explains not only what is presented in this long-play album but practically the entire subsequent trajectory to date, interweaving productions like the collective album Gonzalo Martínez y sus congas pensantes (1997, BMG Chile S.A.), an electronic reading of the cumbia catalog of the Southern Cone and a reference for the Argentine duo Fauna (second release of the label ZZK Records), his instrumental work Manchitas (2018, Avenida La Novena), and his collaborations on projects like Uwe Schmidt‘s Señor Coconut, specifically on the albums El Baile Alemán (1999, Emperor Norton) and Yellow Fever! (2005, Nacional Records), among others.

It’s also worth mentioning the close relationship between González and Carlos Cabezas during this period, the voice and instrumentalist of Electrodomésticos, a project also comprised of two performers with a background in visual arts and various guest artists, including self-taught musicians and scholars. Like González, Cabezas approached his work from a different matrix, more related to melomania, beat literature, and technical training in electronics. This was reflected not only in the design of his equipment but also in the access to newly made instruments that were difficult to acquire in our countries. Furthermore, his lyrics mostly favored a stream-of-consciousness style, prioritizing psychic automatism and wordplay over linear storytelling and the traditional narrative arc.

💻 About our PROCESS

While the temptation to perform a detailed retrospective analysis lingered throughout the production process—citing approaches from various times and impacts, such as the entry dedicated to Jorge González on the online encyclopedia MusicaPopular.cl, Felipe del Solar’s commentary in issue 8 of Rock & Pop magazine (Chile, January 1995), a talk titled “Underground Milestones in Chilean Pop: El futuro de fue” at the UMCE in 1996, and a Soundscapes episode on Radio Integral (University of Chile) in 2002—we opted for an organized collage based on selections from the album and two interviews available on YouTube from 2014 and 2018. These included a self-interview by Jorge González, shared by Luis Ortega and replicated by other channels, and extracts from a conversation between Verónica Calabi and Carlos Cabezas in the second episode of Fabricante de canciones, broadcast on Canal 13C.

Gerardo selected and edited the audio in Audacity for Mac, intervening the album’s title track with tools freely available on Vocal Remover, specifically Vocal Remover and Isolation and Splitter AI. The stems were later refined in Ableton Live, applying necessary equalization and adjustments, producing a final stereo track.

The narrative unfolded spontaneously, allowing for an organic interaction between the interviews and the selected music. This opened up an experience that did not seek to “sell” the album as an “underrated gem,” but to immerse the listener in the process, alongside the disorientation, creative blocks, and uncertainty that accompanied it.

As a hidden track and conceptual continuation, we included the final track from the Demos (2016, Avenida La Novena) box set, “Jorge González con máquina contestadora,” an eloquent closure and hinge that connects the shared work with the future that, at the time, seemed to have disappeared.

Dedicated to the memory of John Streeter Ralph (1950-2022) and Federico Rodríguez Cremaschi (1982-2010).

Gerardo Figueroa Rodríguez, October 2024.

📣 Thus, we release a new NOISE of the 2024 cycle.
📝 Research, production and editing work carried out by Gerardo Figueroa Rodríguez 🇨🇱 in collaboration with Franco Falistoco 🇦🇷 between September and October 2024.