Composed during my MFA at Studio PANaroma (2018).

Fantasia Essata

Composition — Alex Buck

Bernardo Ramos (guitar)
Bruno Aguilar (acoustic bass)
Josué Lopez (tenor sax)
Vitor Gonçalves (piano)

06 Bambuzal (Parte 2)

05 Bambuzal (Parte 1)

This composition was born out of a metaphorical idea: what if the rough, hard, noisy sounds that I had just recorded from instruments made out of wood—such as the cello and the acoustic bass—would represent reminiscent screamings of dead trees (as if the instrument’s woods had preserved the memories of the trees they were made of). 
That idea must have come from the life-changer book I was reading at that time  “The Falling Sky: Words of a Yanomami Shaman” in which the author interviews one of the nowadays most important indigenous leaders. It has been a transforming experience reading it, especially in a moment that several indigenous groups and the Amazon forest itself are being attacked in my home country, Brazil. 

After going a little deeper into this metaphor, I realized how intrinsically connected are the history of music and trees. All western music tradition is somehow dependent on wood, not only for producing instruments (wood, strings, percussion) but also for preserving and enabling its language development through the use of paper (scores). Consequently, trees have been providing us two of the most important things we need to survive: oxygen and music.

All sounds contained in the piece are tree-related. Birds, as Yanomami puts, are tree’s inseparable companions. There are several sounds of closing of books, page turnings, instruments made of wood, and some instrumental gestures allusive of falling trees (or screaming trees) to reinforce this dialectical situation.

Screaming Trees

A revolta dos Xapiris

A Revolta dos Xapiris

Alex Buck (1980) is a composer, performer, and improviser from São Paulo, Brazil. His music is largely influenced by experimental trends of many distinct genres such as acousmatic music, contemporary jazz, Brazilian music,  free improvisation, and contemporary classical music. As a performer-composer, he works mainly within the constraints of acousmatic music and experimental electroacoustic jazz realms.
He received his B.Mus and MFA in electroacoustic composition from UNESP where he studied with his mentor Flo Menezes. In 2019 he received the first prize in Musica Nova international festival (Czech Republic) with his acousmatic composition named Screaming Trees. In 2018, his work Fantasia Essata was among the finalists in Metamorphoses competition (Belgium).
He has an extensive career as a drummer in Brazil, where he collaborated with some of the most relevant artists in the Brazilian-jazz scene: Arismar do Espírito Santo, Hamilton de Holanda, Mestrinho, Michael Pipoquinha, Wilson das Neves, Filó Machado, Sandro Haick, and many others. Buck is a member of acclaimed experimental Brazilian jazz trio Trio Ciclos with Bruno Migotto (bass) and edison Sant’anna (piano), and was a member of Bamboo quinteto with Bernardo Ramos (guitar), Bruno Aguilar (bass), Josué Lopez (sax), and Vitor Gonçalves (piano). 
Buck was the artistic director of  EMEXP, the Experimental Music Ensemble of EMESP (São Paulo’ State School of Music) where he also used to teach composition, écriture, contemporary improvisation, and music analysis. 
He is currently living in California where he develops his Doctoral degree in the Performer-Composer DMA program at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).

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