Felix Martin's new album "The Gathering" features unique sounds of 12 and 16- string FM Guitars, 10-string FM Basses and melodies inspired on medieval music,  Japanese anime style, video game and progressive rock/metal with electronic  music elements.  

The artwork is a manifestation of Felix's passion for anime, with elements being inspired by individual songs he created. As a self-proclaimed enthusiast of anime and manga, Felix conceived the idea to design an anime character for each song during the album's creation process. Each character not only represents a song but is also inspired by it. Throughout the year, these characters will be showcased in music videos and across Felix's social media platforms.

"For this album, I wanted to write strong and well defined melodies (mostly using  my chord soloing technique) while keeping my sound as unique as possible using  my tapping techniques. FM Guitars, my guitar brand, has significantly enhanced my capabilities, enabling me to play instruments like the 16-string and 12-string guitars with single coils, as well as 10-string basses. This gives me a huge palette of sounds and possibilities." says Felix. 

The song "Gatherpiece" was inspired on medieval melodies. "I remember looking  for sources of inspiration and one day I simply started analyzing the art of Magic  the Gathering cards and it gave me some ideas for melodies and chords. On the  other hand, the song Rootcrafter was inspired by the music of 'The Legend of  Zelda - Ocarina of Time' where the melodies and chord changes are very prominent and majestic," says Felix.  

Felix was heavily influenced by anime style and Japanese pop music, particularly the tracks "Louderbit", "Clouddiver", "Wordvision", and "Moonhike". These songs incorporate progressions and melody types commonly found in anime and J-pop music. "For the  last 3 years, I've been listening a lot to music made in Japan, specially anime  theme songs and J-pop. I love how good the actual songs are. They have such a strong sense of melody and songwriting that I don't even need to understand the lyrics. Also, the production is very amazing and creative. Some of my favorite  artist were Co Shu Nie, Yama, Ado and Yorushika," says Martin  

Drummer Nic Kubes adds, “When Felix brought me brought me the first song I was instantly hooked, mainly because I love combining very different genres. So when these sort of Baroque and South American melodies are flowing from a guitar player like him who has this dramatic metal sound, there are a lot of exciting possibilities. On top of that, he not only wanted me to use my full symmetrical drum kit, but to add more to it! A real dream gig. But seriously, getting to combine my sound with Felix’s music has been nothing but fun, getting to take advantage of every moment of counterpoint, and all those dynamic moments Felix throws at you.”

“Felix crafted a unique sonic experience with this album that will certainly appeal to a broad audience,” added bassist Joan Torres. “The music transports you to various scenes and landscapes reminiscent of video games, anime, or even period pieces. Moreover, the record showcases engaging musicianship and songwriting, making it enjoyable for guitarists, bassists, and drummers alike to dissect and study.”

For the first time, Felix blends an FM Guitar (mostly 12 and 16 string guitars) with  an FM 10 string Bass, which makes for a truly unique blend. Great examples of this are on the tracks "Moonhike", "Rootcraft", and "Fatechanger" where both instruments play the same lines in a way that would only be possible on the FM Guitar style instruments. "I wrote about 40% of this album using an FM 10-string bass. It was a massive inspiration  machine and a different feel to my technique. Songs like "Moonhike" and  "Fatechanger" were almost entirely written on the bass first. This type of bass was just released in 2022 by myself, so I was, in a way, developing techniques to play a newly invented instrument," says Martin.

The album explores the dual hand / tapping technique in depth, being almost all  completely played leveraging the technique. "I'd say 99% of this album was played with the dual-hand tapping technique. At this point in my career, I usually don't call it ‘tapping’  anymore. It's just the way I play nowadays, and there are so many techniques  inside the tapping world that it's impossible just to call it tapping. I did one short lead line in the song ‘Rootcrafter’ and some power chords as background, but the rest is just dual hand tapping technique," says Martin.  

Felix has been experimenting with electronic music elements as well. Including  beat creation and design, as well as using virtual instruments. The intro of  "Panamorphic" and "Clouddiver" are a good example of this, 

The album was recorded in Los Angeles with Nic Kubes on drums and Joan Torres  on Bass on selected tracks. Felix also recorded bass on some of the tracks. Mixed  and mastered by Moises Bello.