09.2005: Roger Velasquez a.k.a. Phileas moves to Paris to pursue a Master’s Degree in Architecture in Versailles.
06.2006: Roger exhibits in Versailles “Bleu/Orange”, a short music video featuring voices in 18 languages, entirely recorded from his interviews with fellow students and teachers at the School of Architecture. The sound of the human speech had always been of great interest for him, since his collaborations with LOT Theatre (1998-2008). From 2003 he had began collecting voice samples from his travels.
09.2006: The success of “Blue/Orange” gives Roger the inspiration to begin composing for a human language electronic music project. Roger, until then only knew for his electro-acoustic experiments with LOT and his guitar based pop/rock verve from the project nun (with Peruvian singer Natalí Jimenez), found a perfect opportunity to dive into pure electronica to create the frame for his precious collection of voices from the world.
12.2007: Time for baptism. Roger decides to sign his upcoming language music project as Phileas, honoring his childhood novel hero Phileas Fogg, Jules Verne’s famous traveler from “Around the World in 80 Days”. By that time he also chooses “Spoken Wor(l)d” as the name of his debut album as a solo artist.
03.2008 - 05.2008: Phileas’ séjour at Lima for the mixing sessions of “Spoken Wor(l)d”, with sound engineer and close friend José Carlos Ponce. Phileas works simultaneously on the artwork of the album, choosing the photograph of a dry leaf he treasured from one of his trips as the graphic symbol of the project. The veins of leaf represent the ramifications in the formation and diversification of languages. The photograph of the brown dry leaf would be turned to blue to suggest with color a mental image of the earth, the world.
06.2008: “Spoken Wor(l)d” is submitted to the UNESCO to participate in the International Year of Languages. Shortly after, the project is selected as an “awareness rising artistic initiative about the cultural diversity of humanity” . On June 20, phileasworld.com goes online for the first time. The site delivers news and information about Phileas and his music in English, Spanish and French.
07.2008: On July 15 “Spoken Wor(l)d” is officially released on CDBaby.com.
08.2008: On August 24 “Spoken Wor(l)d” is officially presented live in Phileas’ hometown Lima, Peru. Two days after the album is available in stores nationwide.
10.2008: Phileas returns to Peru for promotional activities and a concert in tribute to LOT Theatre for their 10th. Anniversary.
11.2008: “Spoken Wor(l)d” is nominated Best Dance/Electronica Album of the Year in the Independent Music Awards. The album would run for both the Jury Award and the Vox Populi Award.
12.2008: Veteran Peruvian electronic music critic Helene Ramos in her annual ranking places ”Spoken Wor(l)d” as Best Album of 2008 in the Samplings and Design categories.
11.2008 - 04.2009: “Spoken Wor(l)d” goes radio: songs from the album are airplayed in Hawaii Public Radio, World Beat KMSU, The New Edge, La Otra Orilla, The New Age Reporter, Banana Peel Radio, 2001 Años Después, among others. Reviews of “Spoken Wor(l)d” appear in Muse’s Muse and Catsask (Canada), Somos, Revista Caras and La República (Peru), Synthtopia and Singing Coach (USA), Ondefixe (France), Junior’s Cave (Germany), and others.
05.2009: “Spoken Wor(l)d” wins the Vox Populi Award as Best Dance/Electronica Album of the Year in the 8th. Independent Music Awards. The Vox Populi is given to the productions that get the biggest amount of votes from fans all over world.