Sounds
Serenata a Bruno (2002/03)
stereo electronic composition
Using as initial material some passages of Serenata per un Satellite by Bruno Maderna, the piece explores the possible answers that this composer would receive from the alluded satellite.
Using recordings of melodic lines alla Maderna (precomposed and performed by a subcotrabass flute, a corneto, vibraphone and violin), The recordings are spectrally mixed and recomposed, achieving traditionally musical passages with impossible, yet familiar instrument timbres. The whole piece attempts to serve as a rendition to Maderna, the composer and Maderna, the dreamer.
This piece was granted with an honorable mention in the Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition of 2003.
Listen to an excerpt:
excerpt link coming soon...
Tellura (2003)
stereo electronic composition
Tellura is the result of an exploration in natural disasters that could be associated to the disturbance of electromagnetic fields. For the structure and distribution of the material, seismogram charts of different cities of North and South America were used. The whole piece is divided in 5 parts, but it works as a single piece.
The primary sound materials are synthetic models based on recordings of sonar stations in the Pacific Ocean, where important telluric activity was detected. Using these synthetic models as instruments, several musical interpretations of the seismograms where realized and recorded. Transformations of these recordings were made in the Max/Msp and Csound computer environments, using several implementations of Granular Synthesis, Phase Vocoding and other spectral manipulation algorithms.
[
]
Tellura was awarded on the 2004 edition of the Bourges Electroacoustic Music competition.
Listen to an excerpt
Lonquimay.89
multitrack electronic composition
The aim for creating this piece was to generate a sound result that would be, in terms of timbre, as coherent as possible, allowing then both the composer and the listener to focus and be able to hear the micro and macro level structures generated.
I decided to limit the Analog Patches in terms of dynamism and quantity to the extreme. The piece is basically based in two instrument patches.
Both Patches were controlled by a great number of AC toolbox scores, using several versions of multilayered stream generators.
Each control had, at a primary stage, a clear, single parameter to control in the analog patch.
This varied through time and a progressive exchange of control assignment was added, to the extreme of using a random choice generator for the control assignment itself: Far from a chaotic outcome, the result is a recurrence of gestures and sounds were sometimes the values used to generate a dynamic curve are ‘recycled’ later to control a filter resonance, or in extremis, to generate a pitch sequence itself.
Lonquimay is a region in the south of Chile close to the Andes. It is also a Volcano that became active for the last time in 1989, causing economic and social damage to the small and poor indigenous population of the region. At the same time, it became a tourist attraction to visit the active volcano. These consequently helped a bit to the community of the zone. I had the chance to visit the volcano and the communities living around it on 1989, and to experience the power of nature and its consequences on people of different backgrounds and realities.
Some of the sequences present in the piece reminded me of the feelings that I had staring at the volcano: The clear presence of something constant, steady, yet always mutating to the point of multiplying itself, something strong and on the verge of explode, that never blows up, but nonetheless affects its surroundings.
Listen to an excerpt
Refractions (2003-04)
for ensemble, soundtrack and Live Electronics
In Refractions the fundamental concept is the exploration and detailed description of the musical moments where the sound actors exchange material (both physical and structural).
The manipulation of a wide physical space (real or simulated) furthers this idea, relying on the space itself as part of the ensemble, or rather, the instrument where the interaction and combination of the musical material is happening. The use of live electronics serves the purpose of being a bridge between the tape and the acoustical instrument, a bridge where one can walk, or stop and stare at the evolution of several interconnected events where the moment is infinitesimally small. Here the morphing of ideas and units is at its maximum, the music components are no longer isolated and a new musical entity is presented to the space.
click here for a video excerpt of the Gong only version (Refractions II) performed by The Electronic Hammer
fAlLi(n)Ng (2005)
for harpsichord and computer
The piece aims primarily to create a symbiotic instrument between the mechanical and the electronic sound producers, the properties of the mechanisms of the harpsichord and its sonic qualities and the use of the computer as an enhancer of these properties.
The distribution of the sound material generated by this new combined instrument is organized in a series of continuous layers, some transcendent, some degenerative.
Using a limited set of musical gestures, the time structure of the piece is a journey between different possible timbres, accents, resonances and frequency zones, that aims to sonically revise the process of a conscious fall, from total destruction through, the instant of enlightenment and the moment of uncertainty and emptiness precedent to the journey.
This piece is dedicated to Anne Faulborn.
Listen to an excerpt:
excerpt link coming soon...
Dorothy_F6 (2006)
for bansuri and computer
Dorothy seeks to musically represent the generation, evoltuion and trajectory of an imaginary tornado. In order to achieve this, the system used on the piece is wind filtered by a (apparently) rudimentary instrument, and the exploration of all possible variations in timbre, dynamic and articulation. The results are present in the piece not only as autonomous sound units but also as real-time controlo information for the synthetic timbres of the piece. The latter is based in a serie of algorithms based on Iannis Xenakis ‘gendys”, together with a number of real time spectral manipulation, all of them implemented on Max/Msp.
Listen to ab excerpt:
excerpt link coming soon...
shoc(K)(2006)
for early music ensemble and computer
the primary material for the generation of the computer voice in this piece is a series of X-ray refraction analysis charts done to a number of primary elements. Each element was mapped to a single instrument, crating a grid of isolated accents that would trigger the onset of the predefined time sequences of the main computer part. Live filtering tables are drawn and applied following the same X-ray information. The musical material for the instruments (pitch, rhythms, and basic gestures) was derived from the static characteristic of the refracted elements. The musical representation of these processes gives as outcome a continuous interaction of a static system (the instrumental ensemble) that feeds with data the computer to the point of saturation, and the inevitable release of that tension.
This piece was written for the Roentgen connection. Listen to an excerpt
Accumulation of Hesitation II (2006)
for solo computer
This piece aims to expose a journey through the apparent densities of chaotic behaviors towards silence. The exposition of the firsts are done through sequences of semi-autonomous soundscapes, that are shaped throughout the piece by means of deconstruction, transposition and displacement. Silence manifests by itself. If we are lucky.
Listen to an excerpt and click here for a video excerpt
Tu Recuerdo Manda (hommage a Victor Jara) (2007)
for soprano and computer
With this piece I challenged myself to integrate both my emotional and aesthetic influences in music. The text is a reconstruction of various lyrics of the Chilean songwriter Victor Jara, passing from love to political declamation, from sadness to hope. The computer's relationship to the voice searches for its own timbre universe, without being intrusive. More than a duo, this piece aims to take Jara's musical legacy and spread it over two persons. This piece is dedicated to Camille Hesketh
Listen to an excerpt
for more Wiregriot audio excerpts, click here
cut/random (2007)
for ensemble and computer
The aim of this piece was to generate and imaginary landscape that combines instrumental and electronic timbres, blended together by the subtle use of live electronics. cut/random (in spanish 'corta/azar') takes as departure point the words and voice of the Argentinean author Julio Cortazar, and seeks to connect from the world of sound with his literary cosmogony, reinforcing the aim established by the Modelo '62 ensemble for which this piece was created.