Hydra, Bestia 3. Versión estéreo

During my days as a youngster I did quite a lot of travelling around Mexico by asking for rides at motorway entrances. On a certain occasion, I was given a ride on a large timber-carring truck across the mountain ridge which lies between Puebla and Veracruz. After settling down on my seat and a little later having exhausted the expected small talk, the truck driver immersed in great detail into his lifelong predilection for Mambo music ( which of course, we heard incessantly on the radio). It was very late at night and I was very tired, so I spent a strange night trying not to fall asleep, yet waking up between wild dreams invaded by the sounds of engine acceleration and the air brakes of the enormous machine, the blaring radio and the over enthusiastic conversation of the driver...

It is on the basis of that trip that I drew the psychological frame for Mambo Vinko. The piece is a sort of construction, or rather a deconstruction of this experience, organised as personal "road movie", complete with quotes from the different sonic characters who inhabited my dreams, including the unmistakable grunts of the 50's great king of mambo music, Dámaso Perez Prado. 

The work was composed for Vinko Globokar on a commission from the Groupe de Récherches Musicales in Paris in 1993. Vinko gave the première in Radio France on May 1993 to a fully awake audience.

Mambo Vinko

Ricardo Arias: motor-resonated balloons, oscillators and images of the New York sky
Tucker Dulin, trombone
Miguel Frasconi, glass instruments
Andrew Lafkas, double bass
David Watson, electric guitar
Barry Weisblat, home-made electronics

Recorded live at Experimental Intermedia Foundation on Centre Street in lower Manhattan on March 10, 2012.

Many thanks to Phil Niblock

(2011) Mirando hacia arriba (Looking Upwards)

Jorge Gregorio García Moncada 
Pieza: In MEMOriam, por las víctimas del conflicto armado en Colombia (2024)
Homenaje a la memoria de Jorge Guillermo García Moncada (1979 - 2023)
Dur: 9:00
Formato: Cuarteto de cuerdas y soporte fijo de audio (estéreo)
Intérpretes: LIGETI QUARTET, BEAST, CrossCurrents: The Memory Project, Marzo 8 de 2024, University of Birmingham, UK.

9,593.356 víctimas [del conflicto armado] registradas históricamente – censo del 31 de octubre de 2023 – cobijadas bajo la Ley 1448 del 2011, han sido reconocidas como aquella población del país que ha sufrido violaciones graves y manifiestas a las normas internacionales de Derechos Humanos en el marco del conflicto armado interno con el fin de buscar reparación. Cada víctima cuenta, es la frase que encabeza la página web de la Unidad para las víctimas, en la cual la Ley 1448 reconoce como víctima a “aquellas personas que individual o colectivamente hayan sufrido daños por hechos ocurridos a partir del 1º de enero de 1985”. Teniendo en cuenta el estado actual de las cosas donde guerrillas, narcotráfico, paramilitarismo y estructuras neo-feudales – entre otros – compiten por el control de tierras y corredores de tráfico de todo tipo de actividades ilícitas, pone de manifiesto que dicha cifra (del censo oficial de 2023) queda irrisoria cuando retrocedemos en el tiempo a la génesis moderna de la violencia bipartidista propia de los 1940s y 50s, o antes. Estas generaciones poblacionales, vivas todavía en la memoria de nuestros padres y abuelos, han sido testigos de migraciones de vastas cantidades de comunidades transformadas en lo que hoy día llamamos dolorosamente “desplazados”.  Mi hermano, Jorge Guillermo García Moncada (QEPD) dió su vida profesional – gran parte de la personal – a la atención de esta vasta población vulnerable del país. Este es un sentido homenaje póstumo a él quien fue “mucho más que un gran amigo”… mentor, compañero, apoyo incondicional… a la memoria suya, Chino lindo, por todo el amor que nos dejó en su bella sonrisa que perdura por siempre. Lo amo.

The 9,593,356 victims of the Colombian conflict (according to the census of 31 October 2023) have been protected under Law 1448 of 2011 and are thus now recognised as having experienced serious Human Rights violations, allowing the process of seeking reparation to begin. 'Every victim counts', is the phrase that heads the website of the Unidad para las Victimas (Victim's Unit), in which Law 1448 recognises as victims "those persons who individually or collectively have suffered harm as a result of events that occurred on or after 1 January 1985". Given the current state of affairs where guerrillas, drug traffickers, paramilitaries and neo-feudal structures - among others - compete for control of land and trafficking corridors for all kinds of illicit activities, it is clear that this figure (from the official census of 2023) is derisory when we go back in time to the modern genesis of the bipartisan violence of the 1940s and 50s, or earlier. These generations of the population, still alive in the memory of our parents and grandparents, have witnessed the migration of vast numbers of communities transformed into what we now painfully call "desplazados" (displaced people). My brother, Jorge Guillermo Garcia Moncada (RIP) gave his professional life - and much of his personal one - to caring for this vast vulnerable population of the  country. This is a heartfelt posthumous tribute to him who was "much more than a great friend"... mentor, companion, unconditional support... to his memory, for all the love he left us in his beautiful smile that endures forever. I love you.

InMEMOriam_LigetiSQ_BBC3Radio

La pieza faltante 
Para cuarteto de cuerdas y electrónica en formato fijo. 
Intérpretes: LIGETI QUARTET, BEAST, CrossCurrents: The Memory Project, Marzo 8 de 2024, University of Birmingham, UK.
Grabación de BBC3 radio. 

La obra es una indagación acerca de la memoria nacional y personal, relacionada con los eventos de la toma y retoma del Palacio de Justicia en noviembre de 1985.
Se divide en 3 movimientos de los cuales el primero Toma tu gol, hace uso de materiales de archivo de las transmisiones radiales que se hicieron en el momento de la toma. Estos materiales mezclados con los sonidos del cuarteto evocan la tensión del momento y la contradicción entre la gravedad de los hechos y la forma en que se informó a la población. El segundo movimiento Caballerizas invoca, a travez de sonidos crudos en la electrónica y cuerdas, las torturas y las desapariciones que sucedieron tras la toma en una base militar del ejercito. Finalmente, en el tercer movimiento Un cúmulo de ideales se asiste a la entrega de un cadáver a distancia de 37 años. La sonoridad mezcla la intimidad del momento con evocaciones a la memoria musical popular del desaparecido.

La Pieza Faltante

Súbita Escuridão (2016)
for acousmatic

Composed by Hugo Vasco Reis

Cover by Cláudio Garrudo
CD "I am (k)not" by Hugo Vasco Reis

Supported by
Ministry of Culture of Portugal, Antena 2 (portuguese classical radio) and Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa

"Sudden Darkness" is a work of acousmatic music which develops based on processes of improvisation, intuition and manipulation of sounds, whose internal structures are in constant parametric variation. The work’s idea refers to a trip to my literary memory, where writers such as Fernando Pessoa, Edgar Alan Poe, Milan Kundera or Franz Kafka appear. I imagine the relation of the sounds that I manipulate, with the ideas that run through the minds of these authors. What a great trip... In the formal relation of the work there is an ambiguous discourse, which develops through organic gestures and a dense atmosphere, in an internal organization surrounded by mystery and diffuse images.

“Súbita escuridão” é um trabalho de música acusmática que se desenvolve baseado em processos de improvisação, intuição e manipulação de sons, cujas estruturas internas estão em constante variação paramétrica. A ideia da peça remete para uma viagem à minha memória literária, onde aparecem escritores como Fernando Pessoa, Edgar Alan Poe, Milan Kundera ou Franz Kafka. Imagino a relação dos sons que manipulo, com as ideias que percorrem a mente destes autores. Que grande viagem… Na relação formal da peça persiste um discurso ambíguo, que se desenvolve através de gestos orgânicos e uma atmosfera densa, numa organização interna rodeada de mistério e imagens difusas.

www.hugovascoreis.com

Súbita Escuridão (Acousmatic)

Hey you, 

I had a lot of fun with this. The instrumental is a WHOLE SONG by a WHOLE COMPOSER named Colleen. It's called Soul Alphabet, from her album Captain of None. I do not own it, and I hope, if she sees this, she enjoys it as much as I do. 

It's a love song, for a lover I hope to attract. By moving with intention and purpose and joy. So enjoy! 

Much Love, 
Nirve

Colleen- Soul Alphabet Cover (Move by Nirve)

During a recent recording session I experimented with a collection of skinned percussion instruments, exploring their potential for larger gestures, as well as more subtle, textural material played delicately on the skins. This proved to be sonically interesting, however what surprised me most was the resonant material available via some unusual micing of the larger congas, showing the instruments in a different light which began to move away from the other explicitly drum-like sounds.

Back in the studio I began to explore this contrast further, on the one hand focussing more on the ‘skin’ sounds – the texture and grain of the skin of the drum – rather than the percussive ‘drum’ sounds, pulling the listener into a closer examination of the surface of the drum, whilst on the other exploring the resonant interior sound-world of the instrument. As the piece develops ‘real-world’ sounds are pulled into the music, further exaggerating the environmental qualities of the interior of the drum, moving the listener away from a purely acousmatic examination of the instrument, and into a new landscape, where images, memories and emotions are evoked in the listener, set in motion by the impulses from outside.

* Please note that this is a stereo reduction of an 8-channel work. Feel free to contact me if you would like to listen to the full multi-channel work.

Resonance (Stereo Reduction)

Dúo para violonchelo y piano 

Aldo Mata - violonchelo
Qi Chen - piano

Obra comisionada por la Embajada Española en Colombia / Work commissioned by Spanish Embassy in Colombia
2008

HILOS

https://religiusorder.bandcamp.com/track/alone-with-my-fear-single

I wanna celebrate this year of hard work on my Strangers For Love with this track. 
After a bad period in 2020 with this pandemic and other stuff i recorded this track as a liberation ritual, I helped my mind to be free by bad stuff. 

Lyrics: 

Make your choices without shame, i've a weight on my shoulders... 
Everyday and every nights i live with this nightmares, alone with my fear... 

In the morning I haven't a choice, I start to run, to run, across the beach... 
I see the sea, the sea of nowhere, nut nowhere, nowhere, nowhere... 

Everyday and every nights i fight with this nightmares, alone with my fear... 
Everyday and every nights i live with this nightmares, alone with my fear... 

Everyday and every nights i fight with this nightmares, alone with my fear... 
Everyday and every nights i live with this nightmares, alone with my fear...

W&P by Alessio Di Mezza 
Lyrics by Alessio Di Mezza 
2021

La Pieza Faltante

Santiago Lozano

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