Hot Salvation

Miguel Noya, an early Venezuelan synthesist and ambient-electronic composer, unveils a remastered double LP compilation of career highlights through Phantom Limb, shedding light on his ground-breaking contributions to the cultural landscape of Venezuela.

Embarking on his journey as a pioneering synthesist and computer music educator, Miguel Noya has significantly shaped the musical landscape of Venezuela over the past four decades. However, prior to this reissue, his music remained largely unheard beyond his homeland. With his transcendental and intellectually profound approach to MIDI sequencing, Noya injected the burgeoning ambient-electronic scene of the 1980s Western world with a distinctive environmental gravitas and vibrant tropical colour. The new compilation, "Canciónes Intactas," provides a rare and invaluable glimpse into the strange, isolated lands that gave birth to many uncommon, synthetic, delicate gems, woven from the magical and mythological secrets of Latin America.

Crafted during a period of profound economic and political turmoil, Noya's music serves as a response to an environment steeped in disharmony. The 1980s brought hyperinflation, violent riots, government corruption, and brutal economic crises to Venezuela. Miguel reflects, “many places have an idea of how hard is to keep the centre to create ambient or beautiful aesthetics within such trying psychological and social environments.” Despite the chaos, the material in this compilation acts as an antidote—a calm, blissful, protective shield against the dangers and stresses of unrest. Throughout this period, Noya, a graduate of Berklee College of Music and MIT, maintained a teaching position in Caracas, using his music as a refuge from the trauma.

His self-released solo albums, from the deep sci-fi-synthesis exploration of 1984's "Gran Sabana" to the installation soundscape of 1990's "Ángeles Enviados," are rare gems that were either sequestered away into collectors’ vaults or, inevitably, disappeared altogether. Drawing musical comparisons to Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, or Tangerine Dream, Noya's Latin American perspective stands out as uniquely vital and mesmerizing, much like the crucial distinctiveness of Japanese ambient composers of the era compared to their Western counterparts.