Since the early days of Néfele, Spanish guitarist and producer Andoni Ros has been clear about one thing: he’s not interested in being boxed into a genre. That mindset followed him through projects like Evadne and Caelus, where metal played a central role. But even in those heavier contexts, his drive leaned toward something broader—a sound shaped less by tradition and more by instinct.
“Elsecaller” is his first step into that terrain. Released as a solo debut, the track clocks in at 2 minutes and 22 seconds and leans on textured minimalism, layering a pulsing electronic beat with hypnotic guitar lines. The guitar is still the core instrument, but it’s not upfront. Instead, it weaves itself into the track’s fabric, creating movement through rhythm and repetition rather than riffs or solos. It’s stripped-back, meditative, and open-ended.
The track’s title is a reference to author Brandon Sanderson and the idea of naming the unknown—an apt metaphor for a creative reboot. “By using my own name, I need the music to reflect my artistic concerns, which are quite broad, but at the same time I need boundaries that define my sound… And the natural result was Elsecaller,” Andoni explains.
The process behind the track was fast and unplanned. “It’s one of those tracks that comes about almost by accident—pure creative flow with no expectations, created in just a few hours,” he says. “And when I listened to it, I realized it was the perfect song to kick off this solo journey. It acts as a bridge between my interest in exploring electronic territories—which I’m gradually delving into more and more—but with the guitar as the anchor and origin of all ideas.”
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Even as he experiments with digital textures, Andoni’s main tool remains the guitar—though processed, bent, and often rendered unrecognizable. “At the end of the day, guitar is my instrument—I’m not a keyboardist—and I think using it as a compositional tool in an electronic context allows me to be more spontaneous and honest in channeling ideas, while also being more creative and distinctive,” he says. “Many of the synths I’m creating for this project have come from processing and reinventing my guitar tone.”
At this stage, there are no plans for a full album or live set. “I like the feeling of entering the artist’s world when I listen to music, and I think the album is the ideal format for achieving that experience. My intention as an artist is to head in that direction, but first I need to consolidate my style,” he says. “Releasing singles or EPs is a much more practical way to achieve that, and to give people a chance to discover you.”
He’s aware of the pressures that come with releasing music in 2025. “We live in a constant bombardment of audiovisual content, and people’s attention spans are at an all-time low. As artists, it’s a difficult sea to navigate—we want to be heard without compromising the integrity of our work,” he says. “In that sense, Elsecaller is just over two minutes long because that’s what it called for—a micro-song—but if, in the future, one needs to be seven minutes long, I’ll give it the freedom to be whatever it needs to be.”
That philosophy extends into his reflections on current industry shifts, especially the rise of AI. “The rise of AI worries artists for obvious reasons—copyright theft and loss of job opportunities are the main ones. But what worries me most is the damage it’s doing to the public’s perception of the intrinsic value of art,” Andoni says. “Its meaning is being stripped away, the unquantifiable, immaterial value is lost, and it reinforces the view of art as something ‘superficial, pretty, simple entertainment.’ I constantly think about the responsibility we artists have in how we incorporate AI into our processes and the impact of its use. Art is profoundly human, and AI will never be able to replace artists. What scares me is a world inhabited by people who’ve lost the ability to genuinely and deeply connect with a song, a painting, or any form of audiovisual expression.”
Elsecaller is available on streaming platforms and YouTube. For updates, Andoni posts regularly at @andirosmusic.
