TAK-TAK...TAK...
Ensemble Modern and Plásticas Sonoras (Dedicated to Dorinha Kampela, minha mãe/ my mother - e/and Baiana, como/as Smetak...) My piece’s title comes from both, a nickname that Smetak was kindly addressed by Gilberto Gil (a great Brazilian songwriter from the Tropicalist movement of the 1960’s) and an allusion to his own metier as a luthier and builder of innovative sound-producing objects/sculptures/ instruments. The title spells accents and a dynamic motion, emphasizing the hybrid character of language itself and in particular, of everything that was of Smetak - this benign
“Bruxo” (sorcerer) - interest....  Has the music started already in the title...? - might be an interesting Smetakian question..!
The Plásticas Sonoras can be seen in two very distinctive ways. From one side they are objects without ‘restrictions’ that embody a new type of relationship not with traditional music but sound itself. They do not come with a guideline as how to “properly” play them. The very playing becomes an invention of the performer. They can be played by many performers at once (see his ‘Pindorama’), etc. From the other hand they are embedded in an aesthetic viewpoint, since timbre itself implies a formal commitment to a specific sonic outcome and consequently, a formal, view.
Thus, in order to “escape” the “Smetakian trap,” his creative volition, I decided to expose and subvert somehow the formal constituents of his instruments, their technical ‘limitations.’ My aim during this composition was to create a new kind of virtuosity that has in common with western instruments the fact that an engaged musicianship is being constantly assessed in order to show the instruments’ plasticity. Thus, I deployed new techniques for their manipulations reinventing a repertoire of gestures for them. That way I could create a “Cadenza” for the VINA (Smetak’s most prominent invention) that is extremely virtuosi in demand but keeps the uniqueness of the instrument, its iconic difference, visible and functional to the music... As a common feature of my own music, I always try to avoid exposing instruments as part of an innocuous circus where they would be just a mere gimmick, or “effects’ makers”. My score is a reflection of complex processes in order to safeguard and subsume all its materials to the same compositional demands. I also treated the Western instruments using Smetak’s hybrid approach. The piano and the percussionist II make up for one unique instrument: both play the same piano; the guitarist and the flutist have percussive instruments to prolong their own gestures in other directions... The Smetakian “Chori Sol e Lua” although built for a cellist type of player, is performed here by a guitarist.
Finally, I wanted to subsume the whole Smetakian concept of a cosmic instrument, creating a kind of “vibrating entanglement” of all the musicians. For that I built what I called the “Elastic Tree.” It is a visually enticing scenario. However, my intention was to link all the musicians through elastics that vibrate with percussive instruments when shaken, maintaining a basic musical priority. This vision came to me as I contemplated Smetak’s instrument “Pindorama.” A bamboo structure that spits from its head or top (like a Medusa) “plastic capillaries” whose end exhibit small flutes. This instrument, played by many musicians at the same time, is somehow a powerful metaphor for our time of divisions of all sorts: financial, racial, religious, political, aesthetic, national, etc. I think that the Elastic Tree functions as a Smetakian icon, where Smetak ceases to be seen as an alien or marginalized figure within our common history; an Icon that, I hope, reverberates (and alerts), within the unchanged climate of our primitive culture
- where a utopia is a form of dystopia and earthlings are the true aliens... ©Arthur Kampela 2017 “The Smetak Project” DAAD/ Ensemble Modern 12 de Julho 2017 (NEW VERSION EDITED BY MARTIN HERRAIZ)

Tak Tak-Tak for the Ensemble Modern / Smetak Plásticas Sonoras - Sala São Paulo - Arthur Kampela)

Arthur Kampela