3 Robots Records would like to dedicate SELENES to all the friends who have stepped up to support and help Carolina through these tough times. All hardworking men and women in Puerto Rico, “who will defend our island and it’s people against all odds”. This album is a continued work collaboration between friends and colleagues from the independent music scene in Puerto Rico. It all started when Andres Lugo from the “Astral Cube”, (Los Dientes Hundidos en la Garganta) and (Cielo Océano) sent a couple of beats and soundscapes to Héctor Caolo Alvarez bass player from (Un.Real) and one half of (Sueño con belugas). Then both started exchanging ideas and working together over the internet. SELENES was recorded and mixed sending files back and forth from Baltimore to Puerto Rico. We received the tracks then got back in the studio to record new ideas and incorporate others into the project. For some time Mr. Emanuel Marrero (Panóptika) with his Ondaural music studio in Toa Alta, PR. provided an alternate creative space while mixing most of the tracks. We also recorded in his studio a video for “Where you are” with Gibran Morales (Tu escena Tv) for “Años Luz VIII” Known as AEI or “La Alianza exploradora intergaláctica” is a yearly project directed by Milton Ramirez from (Matotumba). 2018 online live video compilation included videos made by several acts from the puertorrican underground music scene. Ruy Andres Delgado (Diente Perro), (La Futura Prole) and (Ultravivos) joined “SELENES” in November 2019. He helped finishing the record by mixing “Out of nowhere”, “Lead the fire” and mastering all the songs at his Santuario Studios in Rio Piedras, PR.

The name SELENES derives from the word “Selas” which describes the light and brightness emanating from the moon. In ancient Greek mythology, Selene was the name used to describe the moon goddess. Featuring on this album there’s two of the most beautiful, talented, bright, female, singer songwriters from the puertorrican music scene. Both multi instrumentalist musicians and very knowledgeable creative contributors. We are very lucky to have them on the record, getting involved singing and writing some songs. Ms. Carolina Martinez better known as “Zutana Karaya” originally started playing in public when she was 20 years old with Sr. Langosta’s guitarist Andres Ferrera “Patillas” on a band called “Ácido Bruja”. Later on she recorded vocals for Daniel Vicente’s album “Pasajero”. In 2015 joined Héctor Caolo Alvarez on “Sueño con belugas” second in carnation composing songs, playing guitar and singing together on the debut album “Contaminación Acústica”. She’s a very talented artist who shines bright with her unique voice, concepts and ideas. Her nickname “Karaya” means the moon in the Taino language, native tribe who inhabited the island of Puerto Rico at the time of the Spanish colonization. She used to work at “El metro” the Train stations in Argentina, playing guitar on the “Subtes” and wrote many poetry books that later presented at the UPR University in Rio Piedras, PR. On the other hand Ms. María D. Lopez best known by her peers as “Ma Low” is also a very talented recording artist and established musician who graduated from the Conservatory of music in San Juan, PR. Professional soloist, singer, songwriter, composer and caring mother. She has recorded her own material with different successful people in the past and also collaborated within the electronic music scene. She was the lead singer on “Azaire” an independent college rock band she had together with Héctor Caolo Alvarez (Un.Real / Sueño con belugas). They shared the stage with important acts from the puertorrican music scene through out the island in the late 90’s, including for example “Icaro Azul, Imāgenes Caídas and Rituales” and recorded with Egui Santiago (Circo / Cultura Profética) at his professional studio. Egui is a well known keyboardist and producer here on the island, who’s played and recorded many different local band’s at his studio. He recorded the band “Azaire” that went on to open together with the electroacoustic group (Macroporno) for the late Gustavo Cerati (Soda Stereo) on his Bocanada concert tour presentation in 1999 at the Tito Puente Amphitheater in San Juan, PR.

“3 Robots Records" started as a new independent record label established by friends to help organize, record and promote different projects with a specific sound in and out of the island. The label is composed by Tom Lugo from Philadelphia’s “Patetico Recordings” (Stellarscope), (Panophonic) and (Cielo Océano) among other musical incarnations, Héctor Caolo Alvarez (Sueño con belugas) and Gardy Perez Ruiz (Un.Real) Puerto Rico’s first Shoegaze group. Gardy is a well known graphic artist who has worked designing the art covers for different bands on the scene including (Icaro Azul), (Stellarscope) and (Circo) among many others. He also designed the SELENES download card’s lithography and played guitar on the song “Lead the fire”. Caolo drew the download cards cover art “Crisálida Espacial”, produced and appears in most of the tracks on the record. Special thanks to Jorge Martinez Picón, Emanuel Marrero, Luis Pasarell, Warren Santiago, Emanuel Figueroa and Ruy Andres Delgado for contributing and incorporating some of their ideas into the album. Focusing on the music and on the craft has always been a way of getting our minds away for a moment. SELENES was originally conceptualized as an interstellar travel through outer space. Inspired on writing metaphors between our feelings of loss and launch out of the planet. This album attempts to cover the inicial subject of outer space travel, the moon and the stars although, SELENES became much more due to the situation on the island. The final work is a collaborative journey into the inner space and mystery of the mind, intimate relationships, portal bridges, alien visitors, secrets within the pyramids, UFO sightings, lost friendships and the space between spaces. Not only through the night or into the vast darkness and silence of space, SELENES takes us through our own personal experiences and is an ode to all these very important inter connections. The art cover is an oil painting created by graffiti artist Alex "Gato" Sánchez and it was purchased at the now closed “Mondo Bizarro” comics and music store in Rio Piedras, PR.

The album was recorded and mixed through the events of hurricanes Irma and María in 2017. Before the hurricanes the island went bankrupt and billionaires had established the “Promesa act” through the US Congress to collect money for a fictitious 72 billion dollar debt caused on purpose to control the island’s fiscal and financial future. After hurricane María it was a real challenge to get anything done on location and we all were just trying to survive. It felt as if the island was totally destroyed and we had left the planet for good. We were living in pieces looking for any form of illumination while many families overseas were going crazy trying to learn any information about their relatives. The entire island stayed in darkness for weeks and some people lost power for more than 6 months. Like a small light at the end of the tunnel, the moon always seemed to guide us, keeping us working together for a common cause. At times we had to use different generators to work at the studio. Some equipment was damaged in the making of this recording and still today, two years later, the power struggles continue all over the island. Our people fleeing the territory struggling economically. Losing personal belongings for recording an album could never compare to the families who lost everything, including family members, following the worst natural disaster in our entire history. We didn't know the gravity of the situation until much later but more than 4,700 people died because of the total inaction of the government. Still we tried to continue our lives as normal as we could under the circumstances but this hurricanes and the government had changed everything. Both Governments used the disaster for their own advantage continuing further more with their agenda and blaming each other along the way. People in the center of the island without water or food supplies were un communicated for months and desperately needed rescue. The water on the rivers was getting contaminated due to rat infestation. The slow recovery and horrible response from authorities made problems even worst at the morgue. Bodies piled up without control, ashes from AES contaminated everything etc. It was like something that came out from a V movie 100 years ago on an unknown planet. Our elected officials and supposed leaders failed us horribly while giving away provisions only to their own party members and contributing even more with the crisis for everyone else. Evidence was found months later that the government, while serving the high interests of Coca Cola, was purposely hiding aid from the people when thousands of bottled water supplies, that had been previously donated to the victims of hurricane Maria, were discovered by a private drone all lying damaged in an old abandoned airport field and nobody was investigated nor prosecuted for this crime. If it wasn't for the hard working people of Puerto Rico helping each other in the streets and the resilience of the people donating, delivering supplies privately, we wouldn't be here today. It was chaos on location and we really felt that by doing this album we were giving something back to our community. Supporting our friends because Puertorrican's in general went through some very tough times finding jobs while watching everything unfold right in front of our eyes. Our governors inefficiency resulted on a domino effect for all the massive protests in the summer of 2019. After conspiring against the public on a leaked infamous chat, millions of people got together and in 12 days of peaceful protests held their ground forcing the governor to resign. Puerto Rico once again became an example of peace and justice for the rest of the world. Still the list of government officials that must leave office now is very thick and it feels like a never ending crisis. We hope this debt, forced on the people of Puerto Rico illegally, can be responsibly audited and those who benefit from this situation are obliged to pay back what they have stolen. Now we need to get rid of all these made up corporations that just want to take our land and destroy our natural resources. The only thing that these nasty aliens care about is getting richer over the needs and lively hood of our people. We sincerely hope they all get lost in space.

“Let’s all go outer space, science-fiction shit”

Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane)

Important Links👇🏽
Donate to Carolina at gogetfunding.com/apoyo-a-carolina-martinez/
“Where you are” video directed by Gibran Morales (Tu escena TV) youtu.be/vwnb_w5pg2U
“Años Luz 8” www.matotumba.com/Añosluz/AL8/default.htm
Un.Real unrealpr.bandcamp.com
losdienteshundidos.bandcamp.com/track/emptiness
Sin Tribu www.soundcloud.com/sintribu/ego
“Azaire” soundcloud.com/h-ctor-caolo-alvarez/velocidad
Carolina Karaya’s designs karaya.threadless.com