I’ve been editing, scoring, producing, and creating visual art for the last 12 years of my life. In that time no single creator has influenced my style or execution more than Hugo Lasarte under the moniker “Hugo Red Rose”. When I first stumbled upon his YouTube channel I was quickly immersed in nostalgia for mid 80s and early 90s film paired with incredible music I hadn’t heard before. Initially this surface level enjoyment was good enough, however I quickly realized that he was using existing media to craft new stories or retell old stories in a way that had never been done. He had created an entire genre of content that even now I feel is misunderstood. He was sampling and flipping art, short film, feature film, and performance in way that I had seen my favorite music producers do with sound. Not to mention, he was prolific in his work ethic; there was always a new project with a fresh concept and execution. A story, a mood, a philosophy; wrapped into a 4 min youtube video. At a certain point I realized he was an explorer and a pioneer for something that may never be understood, but to me represented the purest form of “modern art”.

Ryan Celsius (stylized as R y a n C e l s i u s °) is a Washington, D.C.-based music curator, disc jockey, video artist, music producer and YouTuber.