Terry Gomes

After visiting the wonderful Star Trek Tour in Ticonderoga, NY this summer and taking my place in the Captain’s chair, I realized that risk-taking and discovery has always been a part of my musical approach. The risks have not been on a grand scale like the Starship Enterprise, but I have consciously tried to do something new on each project I write. At times this has engaged listeners. At other times it has distanced them. With my new album, “The Tropical Dream” coming in January, I’ve been reflecting on what risks I have taken this time around. Here are some of them:

*it is my first (loosely structured), concept album

*it has more varied instrumentation (piano, steel drums, harp, cello, etc…)

*I worked with a variety of new people

*tried recording most of my parts in advance before tracking others

*tried remote recording with people in different cities

My most significant risk was creating the music around a concept. Musically conveying a tropical vacation was very clear in my mind and I followed it through from beginning to end. Although loosely structured, how many artists today create concept albums? There doesn’t seem to be many. This was a risk, for sure. Its outcome is still to be determined.

Trying out new instrumentation in my arrangements was rewarding risk. It required some studying and consultation. To assist me, I reached out to several people who have refined skills on a particular instrument. While there are exceptions, I have had better results with people who know their instrument well and have “lived” it as opposed to multi-instrumentalists.

One other interesting area of risk I tried was working remotely with others. With some instruments, there were no local players with the skills to pull off what I wanted. Consequently, I had to search outside of my city. It was more cost effective to have people play to my existing track and send in their work in via Dropbox. This, of course, is a big risk! I’ve learned that you have to be very specific with what you want, communicate clearly and then relax and trust that the people you’ve hired will give you their best. On this project, I’ve been very fortunate.

At least in musical terms, there is an immense satisfaction with taking risks, no matter how small. They may not always yield exactly what you had hoped for, but the exploration and discoveries along the way make it all worthwhile.

The album was called, “Caribia”. I recall hearing it at a very early age and loving it. It wasn’t until much later in life that I discovered the main instrument used on it was a Venezuelan Harp. It was played by Hugo Blanco and he was also the composer of most of the music on the album. I also loved looking at that cover as a child…


When I got deeper into writing my upcoming album, “The Tropical Dream”, I knew that I wanted to write one piece featuring harp, like Hugo Blanco. Easier said than done! I soon discovered that finding a traditional harpist from South America was not going to be happening in Ottawa. I didn’t want an orchestral harpist. I wanted someone who had lived that music and learned to play that particular kind of harp.

I decided to try out LinkedIn. I found a lady who lived in Toronto but grew up in Uruguay and had been playing Paraguayan Harp since she was a young girl. Perfect! I listened to some of her wonderful playing and reached out to her. We then had an interesting and enjoyable two hour conversation! I think we both felt a mutual respect for each other’s work and we agreed that we would collaborate on my piece.

Despite quite a few setbacks and delays on both sides (including a burned finger she suffered while making caramel!), the recording session for her harp recently took place in Toronto, engineered by her friend, Kiki Martinez. Her performance was recorded there and sent back to my engineer to place into the track with all of the other instruments. What you will eventually hear is the beautiful result. Great work, Martha!

For Mimi




I’ve never been known as a “cat person”. I’ve actually gone out of my way to say that I do not like cats at all even though I had been living with a cat for 17 years. But, I always thought of it as my wife’s cat. Well, the ravages of time eventually caught up with Mimi and it was clear that she had to be put down in order to avoid needless suffering. This happened on May 16, 2016. Much to my great surprise, I was very upset by her passing. She had often been a source of annoyance and frustration for me but when she was gone, I did mourn her. I never thought I would have that reaction for a cat, but I did.

A good friend of ours kindly offered her garden to bury Mimi beside some of her departed cats. So, we buried her and later on spent quite a while looking over old photos and videos taken over the 17 year period. We even visited the exact location where my wife found Mimi many years before. It was a sad time.

The vet gave us a plaster paw-print of hers taken before she went to sleep and a copy of the “Rainbow Bridge” poem. The poem describes the elation experienced when you rejoin your beloved pet after you pass on. I didn’t know what to think about the poem’s meaning but it certainly did stay with me. Meanwhile, I was busy recording demos for my new "Tropical" album. I started wondering how I could immortalize Mimi in one of the pieces. I thought it would make my wife happy and also be a nice tribute. The difficulty was that most people don’t equate a tropical paradise with cats. Birds? Yes. Fish? Of course. But cats??

Around this time, I was composing the ending piece on my album. It is called, “Bye for Now”. It represents the conclusion of a vacation but also suggests a return. The title, music, arrangement and Mimi’s death all blended together in mind. At last I thought of a way for her to be on my album. Shortly before she passed, my wife recorded hours of her purring into a small recording device. The quality was rather poor and there was lots of background noise. I listened to the purring and selected what I thought was the strongest snippet with the least amount of noise. In the song, she is heard at the beginning and at the end. It seemed fitting to blend her voice with that of the ocean. I liked the effect a lot. To other ears, it might sound like humming or a percussion instrument but it is in fact the voice of Mimi. She is also listed in the musician credits as having provided, “Vocalizations”.

Now there will be a permanent archive of the cat I never thought that I liked. I’m still not a cat person per se, but in retrospect, Mimi was a great one.

It was late September, 2015. I had that exhilarating feeling I get when I’m ready to begin writing new music. Then, it happened. After running up a long flight of stairs, I felt a twinge in the back of one of my legs. No problem, I thought. But the next morning I dropped to the floor in horrendous pain. After four hours of waiting for the pain to pass, I had my wife call for an ambulance. At the hospital, I was given some tests, pain killers and sent home. I thought that was the end of it. I didn’t realize it would take over two years of physio and exercises to enjoy being active again.

I learned that I had a hamstring injury and a back sprain. I used a cane to walk for the first few days. Playing guitar would be 2 ½ months away. I found hope in an unwanted, four-octave keyboard that I took home from school when I retired from teaching. I was able to sit at this keyboard for brief stretches. Thus began my new album, “The Tropical Dream”. I ended up writing nine pieces on this keyboard and three others on guitar when I could play again. It was a new and exciting change for me!

I worked throughout the rest of the fall and the winter. I frequently looked out the window at the falling snow and felt a sense of despair, but also a deep joy about the music I was creating. Eventually I began dreaming about escaping to a tropical paradise. I knew that this was a common wish for many people who live in a cold climate. I gradually discovered that I was loosely outlining a vacation, with my instrumental compositions guiding the journey. The destination was not important, but it had to be somewhere warm. Each piece became a little vignette. I began describing the music as “tropical”. I fused musical genres from the Caribbean through to South America with my own musical “voice”.

Typically, I would write all of the arrangements and create demos at home, including my guitar parts. Later in the process, I would redo them all in a studio. However, due to my situation, I decided to use most of the guitar parts I was recording as the final parts for my album. They had a sense of urgency to them that I didn’t believe I could recapture. I just wasn’t sure if the method would work. I would be building a layer cake with my parts being the first layer. Unorthodox, for sure.

By late spring, I thought I had a solid album. I spent the summer tweaking things a bit more. The rest of the work involved project planning, organizing recording sessions and overseeing performances. Despite many hurdles and delays, it came together very nicely. As of this writing, it is mostly in the mixing stage.

I’m certain that many of you who live through cold winter seasons, chase "The Tropical Dream". What you will hear is mine. I hope, in some ways, you can make it yours too.

Happy Landings.

Terry