Sounds foraged with the LOM Geofón in and around Mt. Greylock with Phil Acimovic and Matt Gilbert. June 17, 2021.

Geofón - microwave

Geofón - Mt.Greylock Stream 07

Geofón - Mt.Greylock Stream 06

Geofón -  Mt.Greylock Stream 01

Geofón - Mt.Greylock Bearbox 03

Geofón - Kitchen Cabinets

nosotros hemos puesto los muertos
US-premiere by Ninth Planet (November 2022)


Nosotros hemos puesto los muertos was commissioned by Eutopia Ensemble for the 2021 “smell of protest” call for scores.

In 2018, Nicaraguan president Daniel Oretga killed over 300 peaceful protesters, the worst wave of political violence in Latin America in over 40 years. The title of this piece roughly translates to “we are the ones who put the dead,'' in reference to the public statement that student opposition leader Lesther Alemán said directly to Ortega in 2018. We, the citizens of Nicaragua, have paid in blood for Ortega’s ambitions to remain in power.

Since the protests, Ortega has tightened his grip by imprisoning anyone who publicly opposes him and stealing elections. This work is a personal cry of anger and frustration: the piece builds slowly and steadily to a violent, brutal climax that never resolves. Buried within the work’s textures are two motives: a message to Ortega whispered through the flute, begging him “no mas” (“no more”), and distorted fragments of the Nicaraguan revolutionary song “Nicaragua, Nicaragüita” - a musical representation of my country’s bruised spirit under Ortega, and a tune that any Nicaraguan will recognize.

This work is dedicated to all of the victims who have suffered at the hands of Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo.

nosotros hemos puesto los muertos

Slide was written for the Arizona State University guitar studio for the 2021 PRISMS festival at ASU. Special thanks to Jiji Kim, Isaac Brady, Alicia Castillo, Zachariah Kinnard, Alex Oliverio, and Bill White.

This is my own recording of the piece: it is the mockup I created while composing the work, and to demonstrate certain techniques to the performers.  

Program notes:

The electric guitar was my first instrument, and the slippery slope that caused me to fall in love with writing music. While composing this piece, I continually asked myself: how can I find something new in the excessively familiar? In attempting to explore the frontiers of this instrument (especially with the use of guitar slides), I discovered new, unexpected techniques, timbres and textures that resemble electronic and electroacoustic musical structures. This work has felt like a return to my roots: the rediscovery of an old friendship, cast under new light.

Slide

Plink was composed for the 5th-order ambisonic dome at Arizona State University. In this work, I use layers of very short, dry, percussive sounds to explore different kinds of motion and flocking behaviors in three-dimensional space. 

This is a stereo version of this piece. Please contact me for the 5th order ambisonic file.

Plink

Ambos, for bass clarinet duo, was commissioned by Égide Duo (Joshua and Stefanie Gardner) for the 2023 low clarinet festival, and is warmly dedicated to Josh and Stef. In this piece, I wanted to explore timbral ambiguity and unrecognizability through multiphonics and microtonality. The raw materials for this piece were developed in close collaboration with Josh and Stef.

To see the video, please visit https://youtu.be/rHoCkd4bJZ0

ambos

Ouroboros Miniatures for 2 guitars. Dedicated to Kelsey Osgood. Performed by the Kaltchev Guitar Duo. 
I. Swell
II. Alloy
III. Mute
IV. Chorale
V. Phase
VI. Vals

Ouroboros Miniatures

For Pierrot + Percussion. Performed by the Atlantic Music Festival Contemporary Ensemble. 2014. 

Ecosystem

Sabicas Plutaños Saarigeti is a live improvisation system for amplified guitar and max/msp, composed and performed by Gabriel Bolaños. This performance was recorded in November 2023. 

As the title suggests, the work was inspired by the music of Sabicas, Sam Pluta, Kaija Saariaho and György Ligeti. This work is part of an ongoing research-creation project that explores various approaches to technologically-mediated performance practice.

The electronics are entirely controlled and generated by the acoustic guitar: the max patch detects the pitch, dynamics (amplitude) and brightness (spectral centroid) of the guitar’s incoming signal, and reacts independently in various ways to these parameters.

The reactivity is purposefully designed to be occasionally predictable and occasionally unpredictable, which encourages the performer to listen carefully and react to each performance differently.

The electronics combine classical synthesis (subtractive, AM synthesis, additive synthesis), real-time pitch shifting and harmonizers, recording and playback of audio buffers, granular synthesis, and launching of some audio samples.

Sabicas Plutaños Saarigeti

Bachstro Plutaños Saarigeti was written for Michelle Gott and Emily Levin for the 2023 PRISMS Contemporary Music Festival at Arizona State University. The title of this piece is a portmanteau of the five composers whose music directly influenced this piece: JS Bach, Chris Castro, Sam Pluta, György Ligeti and Kaija Saariaho.

This piece is warmly dedicated to Chris Castro, who showed me some fascinating new discoveries in Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, which eventually led to this piece. Thanks Chris!

Recording by Kylar Gardner. 

The electronics are entirely controlled and generated by the harps: the max patch detects the pitch, dynamics (amplitude) and brightness (spectral centroid) of the harps' incoming signals, and the electronics react independently in various ways to these parameters.

This work is part of an ongoing research-creation project that explores various approaches to technologically-mediated performance practice.

Bachstro Plutaños Saarigeti

Slew was written for members of the Glendale Community College Guitar Ensemble, the Arizona State University Guitar Ensemble, the Tucson Guitar Society, and the Bolton Guitar Program at University of Arizona, for the 2024 Oh My Ears Instrumental Choir Concert. 

For more information, please visit gabrielbolanos.com/slew

Slew

Sonora for flute and clarinet. Performed by Vicente Alexim and Zach Sheets

Sonora

khôra-khôra, for flute and piano. Performed at Firehouse 12 by Zach Sheets and Wei-Han Wu. Dedicated to New Music USA and Tallon Perkes Scholarship Fund. 


khôra-khôra (live)

Sonorita, for flute and clarinet in b-flat. Performed by Zach Sheets and Vicente Alexim. 

SONORITA

Tessellations for flute, violin, cello and piano. Premiered by the Empyrean Ensemble on Feb. 4, 2017.

Tessellations

Mombacho
for harp, guitar, cimbalom, double bass and electronics
by Gabriel Bolaños Chamorro
réalisation informatique musicale: Monica Gil Giraldo
2019

commissioned by CIRM, National Center for Creation of Music (Nice, France) 
for the 2019 MANCA festival 
work done in the studios of CIRM
premiered by Ensemble C. Barré

Located in Granada, Nicaragua, the Mombacho is an active volcano with a tropical rainforest on its summit. When I lived near the volcano, I would frequently hike in the rainforest, and became fascinated by the volcano’s rich sonic ecosystem. Thousands of different species of insects, birds, reptiles, and other animals that inhabit the rainforest create complex overlapping sounds that mix with the natural soundscape of the weather, the trees, and even the human inhabitants of the Mombacho.

This piece was inspired by this beautiful sound world. It is an exploration of the cyclical, diurnal, and seasonal changes of the rainforest’s sonic ecosystem. The quartet plays a variety of textures that continuously evolve through a slow microtonal harmonic progression, while each instrument is amplified and spatialized around the audience using a surround-sound ambisonic speaker setup. The audience is immersed in the ensemble’s sound while it constantly moves, evolves and interacts in the space around them. 

To complement the instrumental sound of the quartet, and to add an additional element of unfamiliarity, an electronic tape part is synchronized with the instrumentalists and also spatialized around the audience. Most of the tape part was produced by recording household objects, and processing them with various studio techniques, and occasionally with a Buchla modular synthesizer. The goal was to create en electronic part that sounds as natural and organic as possible, that blends with the plucked strings of the ensemble, while complementing the quartet’s timbral palette.

Mombacho

Assistant Professor of Music Composition at Arizona State University. 

gabrielbolanos.com

Gabriel Bolaños

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