Agatha - The film
I am very excited to share with you, that this morning, I received 2 big news. The first one, it was that my first film project I directed Agatha has been “Officially Selected” by the BFFF (Berlin Flash Film Festival).
I am very excited to share with you, that this morning, I received 2 big news. The first one, it was that my first film project I directed Agatha has been “Officially Selected” by the BFFF (Berlin Flash Film Festival). And the second one, only received a few minutes later, is that the film won the “Urban Art — best soundtrack 2020" award at the BUFF (Berlin Underground Film Festival).
I can only say that this has been possible thanks to the collaboration of Augusto Guzmán, who gave life to the film’s protagonist (Próspero), the immaculate photography of Junting Zhou. (Btw, if you do not know his work, see the doc he made about Cov-19 and that was published by New York Times recently. (https://nyti.ms/3aC2hKm)and the production of Irreverence Group Music.
I would also like to thank filmmaker Aulio Ivan Ortiz Perez and his mother, Altagracia Mencía Pérez for playing the role of Francisca, the Mother, and also to John Garcia for his sound design.
I take this opportunity, to also thank my filmmakers, artists, photographers and writers friends for having been there always with good advice. My dear Badr Farha, Ana Paula Feier and Vlad Feier, Susan Campos Fonseca and her poetry and Sophy and her support in translation. Amigos de siempre Ilona Miller, el primer publico Carlos Del Risco Jaramillo, Rodrigo Fajardo, Jaime Davila, JP Wright and of course to Miguel and Gabi for always being there supporting my ideas.
Agata is a visual experiment that is based on my story Voyeuristic Images, which is also part of my piano cycle Op. 10 and that I premiered in Dec 2019 at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music. The story tells a experience that I lived 11 years ago when I moved to NY, and that still, I remember very well.
WQXR Presents: Beginner’s Ear
On January 31, the hypnotic music of Julia Wolfe, Philip Glass, Hannah Lash and Julián De La Chica becomes a vehicle for deep inward exploration in this special one-hour event combining guided meditation and live music.
WQXR presents Beginner’s Ear, one hour of lunchtime bliss with guided meditation and a live performance by world-class musicians every Friday from January 17 through March 6.
On January 31, the hypnotic music of Julia Wolfe, Philip Glass, Hannah Lash and Julián De La Chica becomes a vehicle for deep inward exploration in this special one-hour event combining guided meditation and live music. The performer is Lisa Moore, whose playing was singled out by the New York Times for its “life and freshness” and “fragility and tenderness.”
Lisa Moore
by Yumiko-Izu
Lisa is joined by the Colombian composer and sound artist Julián De La Chica, “an extraordinarily deep thinker … able to take a listener into mysterious by-ways using very slender means.” (Stephen Mould) Join in a simple mindfulness practice to clear mental static, then allow the sounds of Lisa’s piano transport you on a sonic journey.
Hosted and moderated by New York Times contributing critic Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim. Meditation led by Thomas Droge, founder of the Pathfinder Institute.
Lisa Moore &
Julián De La Chica
Photo by Hassan Malik
Video
Lisa Moore & Julián De La Chica
Prelude Op. 8 No. 13
Julian De La Chica LIVE in NYC
On December 12, 2019, Irreverence Group Music presented Composer & pianist Julian De La Chica at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City, premiering his new ambient/minimal Piano Cycle Op. 10 "Voyeuristic Images". In this intimate, solo recital, De la Chica explored raw scenes from watching people's every day life from a friend's apartment window in Soho, NY.
On December 12, 2019, Irreverence Group Music presented Composer & pianist Julian De La Chica at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York City, premiering his new ambient/minimal Piano Cycle Op. 10 "Voyeuristic Images".
In this intimate, solo recital, De la Chica explored raw scenes from watching people's every day life from a friend's apartment window in Soho, NY.
Photo by Alberto Carobene
Notes on the Program
In my process as a composer and/or experimenter, "everyday life” as a situation has been fundamental to my creative development. And, perhaps because I belong to a generation that has managed to take image (film, TV, graphic) to other levels of perfection, image, as such, is crucial in my stories. I write about what I see, therefore I write about what I live.
I spent about 8 months visiting friends who lived in Soho, NY. I had just arrived in NY, and I just wanted to go out and get to know the city more. We used to go out a lot, and sometimes, I slept at my friends' places, on the sofa, so as not to take the train so late to Harlem, where I lived at the time. Anyway, I didn't have the money for a taxi fare. That's how I lived this story. From the front window. I'm sure this mysterious man knew that I saw him. And maybe he felt morbid that I saw him. Maybe it was just my imagination and I didn't realize it. Who could know for sure what was happening there?
Soprano Rachel Hippert
During the introduction at the Concert
Photo by Stan Ptisin
In the present time, the saturation of the “whole" consumes us. The internet deceives us, and social networks create a virtual collective psychosis. In this piano cycle, I explore in sound and texture, the decay of our everyday life. What we do not see; what is unspoken. I explore the silent image, the fantasy of what we see. The information we share, real or not. Silence as a fundamental element of existence today; listening. Callar.
I invite you to read the texts that I wrote about what I saw; open the window of your imagination, and be a voyeur tonight, with me.
Video
Concert Gallery
Julián De La Chica plays
De La Chica, Voyeuristic Images Op. 10, No. 4
Ms. Blanche.
Profanum, the new album of Soprano Rachel Hippert is OUT
IGM proudly presents the new album of Soprano Rachel Hippert, featuring the early sacred songs of Julian De La Chica. Check out the video in which both singer and composer discuss Profanum, and hear some of the most stunning moments of Hippert's performance on the album. We are also delighted to share these artful and reflective notes on the album, written by American actor and Opera Star, Zachary James.
IGM proudly presents the new album of Soprano Rachel Hippert, featuring the early sacred songs of Julian De La Chica. Check out the video in which both singer and composer discuss Profanum, and hear some of the most stunning moments of Hippert's performance on the album. We are also delighted to share these artful and reflective notes on the album, written by American actor and Opera Star, Zachary James.
Rachel Hippert
Photo by Julián De La Chica
Profanum - the early sacred songs of Julian De La Chica, the new album from American Soprano Rachel Hippert celebrates humanity in all its imperfections and our eternal desire for meaning within our existence. Though religious themes are present it was not these themes that gave birth to this work, but a desire to connect with the heart of the listener, to identify with the complex emotional landscape of what it is to exist in human form on this small planet we share.
AMY - A Tribute, is out today!
I wrote this tribute to Amy Winehouse 8 years ago when I heard about her tragic death while on a cab drive to my home in Brooklyn. I was in shock.
I wrote this tribute to Amy Winehouse 8 years ago when I heard about her tragic death while on a cab drive to my home in Brooklyn. I was in shock. On the radio Amy’s song You know I’m no good played. As soon as I got home, I sat down at the piano and wrote AMY, a response to Amy’s You know I’m not good. I thought: “When I see you again, I'll tell you a story, as we walk the Brooklyn's streets”. Days after, I invited jazz singer Omayra to sing the song. We recorded a version for piano and voice.
Today, we are celebrating Amy's life with the release of the song in a new remix. A little tribute to a big inspiration in my life.
Cover by Jeny Odio
Omayra &
Julián De La Chica
Photo by Pedro Martí
Psychosis, my new album, is out today!
I am very happy to share with you that my new solo album Psychosis is out today. This is a very special album because it immerses in electronic experimentation, based on my own learning of the world of electronic music.
I am very pleased to announce the release of my new solo album, Psychosis. This is a very special album because it is immersed in electronic experimentation. I titled it Psychosis because it explores the contamination and sickness of the virtual world in which we live today.
The mind has always been a source of great intrigue. The relationship between the so-called soul, the conscience, the mind, and the spirit, poses questions that are barely answerable. As a mental illness, “psychosis” is defined as an inability to determine what is real and what is not. Some of its best-known symptoms include false beliefs and seeing or hearing things that others do not see or hear. My new album for synth, electronics, and piano explores the "Psychosis" of today's virtual existence in which the internet inexorably changes our reality. It explores our false beliefs, the nakedness of the obvious, the nakedness of perception.
Julian De La Chica in Auschwitz
In a world dominated by "Social Media", the images that we create of ourselves become a parallel world that we inhabit daily. We are constantly waiting for a "like", waiting for acceptance, waiting for validation of our actions. The vanity of our other selves makes us slaves to pseudo reality. Perhaps that's why we think we're happy in that other world... we want to forget that we're going to die. We all have a "psychosis", and in this album, I explore my own.
Julián De La Chica
One man’s Psychosis is another’s fascination. For De La Chica, musical psychosis comes in the form of order, exactitude, measured structures and forms. His aesthetic palette is clean, rounded, precise, every color and tone is discrete, outlined with clear, black borders.
— George Grella
Read the Album Notes by George Grella Here
ANIELA & NITKE
Over the summer, I visited Auschwitz for the first time. I do not think there are words to describe what I felt. In one of the buildings, in a very sad hall, there were pictures of some of the victims. I had to wait in the middle of this hall because there were so many people waiting to go in. In front of me were two photos, one of a woman and one of a man, named Aniela Nowak and Heinz Nitke. Their eyes said everything... I composed these pieces as a tribute on my way back to Krakow. In this album, I dedicate track No. 7 “Melancholy” to the Jewish community (in fact, I made a video of this track at the the Holocaust memorial in Berlin) and include Nitke (a simple piano piece) as a bonus track. For Aniela, (a duet for piano and cello) was released a few weeks ago as a single.
When I visited Poland, Psychosis had already been completed.. However, after visiting the camps, I found a strong connection between "Psychosis" (the album) and my experiences visiting Auschwitz. For this reason, I decided to put them together on this album. Both experiences are part of this same exploration of belief, religion, politics, leadership, ignorance, and power.
Dear Aniela and Heinz, there are not words, but there is music.
"For Aniela" is out today!
During the summer, I visited Auschwitz for the first time. I do not think there are words to describe what I felt. In one of the buildings, in a very sad hall, there were pictures of some of the victims.
Dear friends
For Aniela my new single for Cello & piano, recorded with American Cellist Benjamin Larsen, is out!
During the summer, I visited Auschwitz for the first time. I do not think there are words to describe what I felt. In one of the buildings, in a very sad hall, there were pictures of some of the victims. Due to the line of people waiting to enter, I had to wait in the middle of the hall. Then there was this photo of a woman, her name was Aniela... her eyes said everything... I composed this piece in her honor, on my way back to Krakow. And yes, the photo on the cover, is her. Dear Aniela, there are not words, but there is music...
aniela - the recording
Auschwitz Photos by Julián De La Chica
Lisa Moore Live in NYC | Music by Philip Glass & Julián De La Chica
Wednesday, October 17, 2018, 8:00 PM @ The DiMenna Center in New York City, Lisa Moore will World Premiere her new CD: Julián De La Chica's Preludes Op. 8 (For piano and synthesizer) produced and published by Brooklyn based, independent record label, Irreverence Group Music (IGM).
Wednesday, October 17, 2018, 8:00 PM @ The DiMenna Center in New York City, Celebrated pianist Lisa Moore will World Premiere her new CD: Julián De La Chica's Preludes Op. 8 (for piano and synthesizer) produced and published by Brooklyn based, independent record label Irreverence Group Music (IGM). For the first part of the concert, Ms. Moore chose works by American composer Philip Glass: Etude No. 2, Metamorphosis II and Satyagraha Act III, Conclusion. Australian pianist Lisa Moore has been described as “brilliant and searching… beautiful and impassioned… lustrous at the keyboard” (The New York Times), “visionary” and "New York’s queen of avant-garde piano” (The New Yorker).
Ms. Moore will perform with composer De La Chica on synthesizer.
Lisa Moore
De La Chica: Prelude Op. 8 No. 13
Julián De La Chica Live at ShapeShifter Lab
On 16 August 2018 (Thu), at 8:15 pm, Composer and pianist Julián De La Chica will release his second solo album Psychosis a cycle for piano, synth and electronic at Brooklyn's ShapeShifter Lab. In this work, De La Chica will play for the first time a set of electronic music ranging from Modern Classical to Ambient and Minimal electronic music.
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Thursday, 16 August, 2018, at 8:15 PM, Composer and pianist Julián De La Chica will release his second solo album Psychosis a cycle for piano, synth and electronic at Brooklyn's ShapeShifter Lab. In this work, De La Chica will play for the first time a set of electronic music ranging from Modern Classical to Ambient and Minimal electronic music.
Since always, the mind has been an intriguing world for us. The relationship between the so-called soul, the conscience, the mind and the spirit, proposes questions that we can hardly answer. "Psychosis", as a mental illness, is defined as the difficulty in determining what is real and what is not. Some of its most well known symptoms may include false beliefs and seeing or hearing things that others do not see or hear. This Cycle, for Synth, electronic and piano explores the "Psychosis"of today's virtual existence where the internet inexorably changes our reality. It explores our false beliefs, the nakedness of the obvious, the nakedness of perception.
Album Trailer:
In a world dominated by the "Social Media", the images that we create of ourselves become a parallel world in which we inhabit daily. Always waiting for a "like", waiting for acceptance, waiting for validation of our actions. It's the vanity of our other self and we become slaves of that pseudo reality. Perhaps that's how we think we're happy... we want forget that we're going to die. We all have a "psychosis", and in this album, I explore my own... — JDLCH
About Julian De La Chica:
De La Chica is a Colombian composer, pianist and record producer based in Brooklyn, NY, whose influences range from American minimalism to the alternative and electronic scene. His work, most of the time inspired by everyday images, the search of personal spiritual reflection and the inner darkness, mixes piano, strings, and classical singers, with electronic keyboards and controllers, crossing over from classical to ambient/electronic music.
+info:
Celebrated pianist Lisa Moore releases her new album with music by Julian De La Chica
Described as “brilliant and searching… beautiful and impassioned… lustrous at the keyboard” by The New York Times and crowned “New York’s queen of avant-garde piano” and “visionary” by The New Yorker, the celebrated pianist Lisa Moore released her new album DE LA CHICA: PRELUDES OP. 8 on March 1st 2018. The album - produced and published by independent record label Irreverence Group Music - is the Premiere Recording of the New York based Colombian composer Julián de la Chica's Preludes Op. 8 for piano and synthesizer.
Described as “brilliant and searching… beautiful and impassioned… lustrous at the keyboard” by The New York Times and crowned “New York’s queen of avant-garde piano” and “visionary” by The New Yorker, the celebrated pianist Lisa Moore released her new album DE LA CHICA: PRELUDES OP. 8 on March 1st 2018. The album - produced and published by independent record label Irreverence Group Music - is the Premiere Recording of the New York based Colombian composer Julián De La Chica's Preludes Op. 8 for piano and synthesizer.
Album Notes
Lisa Moore's repertoire and discography include a wide range of piano literature, from baroque to modern - where experimental music, minimalism, and post-minimalism play a important role. Her oeuvre continues to grow with the addition of this album, dedicated to New York-based Colombian composer Julián de la Chica’s Preludes Op. 8 for piano and synthesizer.
These 14 preludes are an example of “sensorial-minimalism” and perhaps they are a continuation of the composer's exploration in his two recent cycles: Nocturnal & Circular Images Op. 5 for piano (performed by the composer himself), and Experimentelle und Unbestimmte Lieder Op. 9 for soprano, piano and synthesizer (recorded by American soprano Rachel Hippert). In these works, and his piano Preludes, Mr. De La Chica organically oscillates between post-minimal and ambient music. With the constant evolution of music, each epoch engenders new bodies of both performers and audience. In this album, Ms. Moore presents a form of piano art that challenges itself and views virtuosity as a technical practice guided by the search for sound. The repertoire ultimately becomes a way to forge the pianist’s body and way of listening, and it evolves side by side with the creation of sound in time.
“Open, warm, inviting, beguiling -Julian’s music is unique and beautiful. He stretches time. Clear, simple, tender melodies line the air, sculpting edges across open harmonic spaces. His gentle blend of piano and synthesizer creates cushioned swirling textures, coaxing memory and imagery, soothing and consoling. I was really touched when Julian asked me to record his piano music. For me, the moment seemed just right to do this album. I feel a strong visceral connection.I hope listeners do too.”
— Lisa Moore
Lisa Moore&
Julián De La Chica
Photo by Hassan Malik
Julián De La Chica’s Preludes Op. 8 for piano and synthesizer were composed in New York City between 2015 and 2017. About these works, the author says: “The Op. 8 cycle is a process that improvises the image that is absent. The hidden image creates emotion, truth and reality… The Preludes are an exploration of another kind of virtuosity... the virtue of sound. What lies behind, what we do not see.”
Every new school exists because it engages in a dialogue with tradition. Italian pianist and musicologist Luca Chiantore reminds us, for instance, that “what is modern about Beethoven’s research is that which the music score does not say: a reflection of the physiological components of the performance, the equilibrium of forces that the performer establishes with the keyboards, something that can also be produced in pages of great simplicity” (Beethoven al piano, 2010). I daresay, without a trace of historiographical reserve, that Lisa Moore’s work exemplifies that dialogue between exploration and the rigorous development of traditional performance practice. The composer proposes ideas, then Lisa Moore’s performance creates a dialogue between those ideas and her performance and sound development. Essentially, what the score does not say exists in Lisa Moore’s unique sound as a pianist, and is what invites us to listen to these Preludes within our living time.
Susan Campos - Fonseca, PhD
Musicologist and composer
Behind the Scenes
the video:
Don't miss the album recording's Behind the scenes and the exclusive
conversation with celebrated pianist Lisa Moore and watch
some of the most stunning moments of her performance.
“When I think about the preludes, I think of Lisa. She narrated the story with elegant inventiveness. Sophistication. She was seductive and indomitable. She thought continuously of the sound, she explored the piano as a stage, the concept as a scene. Lisa was transfigured in that image that is not there, that we do not see, but that exists ... she has the maturity and the vision to do it.”
— Julián De La Chica
the artists
Lisa Moore
Photo by Hassan Malik
The New York Times writes ‘Lisa Moore has always been a natural, compelling storyteller’ while TimeOut New York describes her as ‘the wonderfully lyrical pianist’. Lisa Moore has released 10 solo albums (Cantaloupe, Orange Mountain, IGM, Tall Poppies, Bandcamp) ranging from Leoš Janáçek to Philip Glass. Her 2016 album The Stone People (Cantaloupe), featuring music by John Luther Adams, Martin Bresnick, Missy Mazzoli, Kate Moore, Frederic Rzewski, and Julia Wolfe, made both The New York Times Top Classical Albums of 2016 list and Naxos’ 2017 Critics’ Choice.
Ms. Moore has recorded more than thirty collaborative discs (Sony, Nonesuch, DG, BMG, New World, ABC Classics, Albany, New Albion, Starkland, Harmonia Mundi, Bandcamp). She has worked with over 200 composers and performed globally as both a soloist and a collaborator with a large and diverse range of musicians and artists including the London Sinfonietta, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet, Steve Reich Ensemble, American Composers Orchestra, Bang On A Can All-Stars (founding member ‘92-’08), Paul Dresher Double Duo, So Percussion, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Grand Band, TwoSense, and Ensemble Signal. Festival highlights include Lincoln Center, BAM Next Wave, Tanglewood, Aspen, Chautauqua, Gilmore, Huddersfield, Holland, Graz, Paris d'Automne, Rome, Milan, Turin, Hong Kong, BBC Proms, Southbank, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne Metropolis, Israel, and Warsaw - in venues - Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, La Scala, Musikverein, and the Sydney Opera House.
Visit here the official website of pianist Lisa Moore.
Julián De La Chica is a Colombian composer, pianist and record producer based in Brooklyn, NY, whose influences range from American minimalism to the alternative and electronic scene. His work, most of the time inspired by everyday images, the search of personal spiritual reflection and the inner darkness, mixes piano, strings, and classical singers, with electronic keyboards and controllers, crossing over from classical to ambient/electronic music.
+info:
Nocturnal & Circular Images Op. 5, the "Behind the Scenes"
Independent record label, Irreverence Group Music - IGM presents: Nocturnal and circular images Op. 5 - The behind the Scenes. Exclusive and raw images about the album's recording and some intimate moments with composer and pianist Julián De La Chica. Featuring tracks like Fado, introspective, Etude and others, De La Chica gives us his thoughts on minimalism, being a composer today and some of his inspirations in life and in music.
Independent record label, Irreverence Group Music - IGM presents: Nocturnal and circular images Op. 5 - The behind the Scenes. Exclusive and raw images about the album's recording and some intimate moments with composer and pianist Julián De La Chica. Featuring tracks like Fado, introspective, Etude and others, De La Chica gives us his thoughts on minimalism, being a composer today and some of his inspirations in life and in music.
The Music
New York based, Colombian pianist and composer Julián De La Chica wrote the Nocturnal & Circular images Op. 5 in 2014 which premiered in December 2014 a the Saint Joseph’s Brooklyn Cathedral. The Cycle Op. 5 is a group of 10 pieces written for the piano, inspired by different night scenes, situations and/or characters. The work suggests a direct relationship between everyday sound and inner images that we create or concoct. The work contains a simple and clean composition form, notes that repeat indefinitely, raw and free textures and static harmonic cycles. In this work, Mr. De La Chica continues the series that began in 2011 with the cycle Op. 4, in which he experimented with genres such as Latin, hip hop, techno and pop, creating 11 night-time images based on situations that happened in New York City.
Julián De La Chica
Photo by Hassan Malik
In the Cycle Op. 5, Mr. De La Chica seeks to strip the piano bare, reaching a sound that is void of interpretative recourse. Musicologist, composer and writer Susan Campos - Fonseca refers to the work as "ascetic" in her musings on "musical excess" and, in discussing the music of De La Chica, speaks of a "Trans-minimal aggression". According to Ms. Campos - Fonseca: “Listening from this perspective can be daunting to the contemporary ear; the idea of complexity as synonymous with quality, the saturation of the sound landscape and productions that represent the so-called post-post-symphonic great culture deafen us ... why? The reason lies in our need for saturation, rational self-complacency in excess, in the spectacle where nudity is not enough, where open flesh and blood, even death, do not sate us. No, we will not find that in the music of Julián De La Chica. It is writ large across the works that make up this experience: the aggression of the minimum lies there"...
Composer Julián de la Chica & Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio, Yonkers, NY
Photo by Hassan Malik
Album Notes
Julián De La Chica considers himself to be an "experimenter”, not a "composer". However, he composes a micro-universe from naked atomic sound. The skin is a set of pores traversed by particles of world. The music De La Chica explores the liminal atomic spaces between these pores and the world.
The Cycle Op. 5 shown in this album does not speak of the Colombian composer living in New York city; It is a pilgrimage. The piano is the only trace of this journey of identity which is, in short, destruction. The inner sound, is the deepest for those who create from the musical abyss. Sound culture around us weaves nets like mermaid songs and Penelope mantles ... he who seeks his sound needs to choose; and home is not always Ithaca.
Julián De La Chica, as Samuel Beckett, knows that companionship is being "alone" and, as in the nighttime images of William Blake, speaks of the unfathomable path with the smallest gesture of a human hand. In his Cycle Op. 5, De La Chica opens the "metaphysical box" called piano, which imagined Oteiza, like a beloved body, sole companion, minimum.
Susan Campos - Fonseca, PhD
Musicologist and composer.
the artist
Julián De La Chica is a Colombian composer, pianist and record producer based in Brooklyn, NY, whose influences range from American minimalism to the alternative and electronic scene. His work, most of the time inspired by everyday images, the search of personal spiritual reflection and the inner darkness, mixes piano, strings, and classical singers, with electronic keyboards and controllers, crossing over from classical to ambient/electronic music.
+info:
Susan Campos - Fonseca & Julián De La Chica
NY-based, Colombian composer and pianist Julián De La Chica, and Costa Rican composer, writer and musicologist, Susan Campos-Fonseca, PhD (Casa de las Américas Prize 2012), present in the album Minimal Aggression a mutual reflection on Minimalism, it’s possibilities and trajectories in the XXI century. This album can be seen as a first "Manifesto" and as an artistic research, where two worlds converge: independent creation (De La Chica), and academic thinking (Campos-Fonseca).
NY-based, Colombian composer and pianist Julián De La Chica, and Costa Rican composer, writer and musicologist, Susan Campos-Fonseca, PhD (Casa de las Américas Prize 2012), present in the album Minimal Aggression a mutual reflection on Minimalism, it’s possibilities and trajectories in the XXI century. This album can be seen as a first "Manifesto" and as an artistic research, where two worlds converge: independent creation (De La Chica), and academic thinking (Campos-Fonseca).
Behind the Scenes
The video:
Talking about vanguard art and transgression is something completely historical. The burden of historicism poured over the creative act is, perhaps, one of the greatest tests for a composer today. If you are a creator of sound, you're in historical perspective. The works gathered here choose Minimalism as a possibility for an ascetic journey, where musical materials can be reduced to a minimal structure, exploring the tension between sound and noise. Within this search, Noise and Poetry become articulative axes.
Susan Campos - Fonseca
Photo by Hassan Malik
This project brings together the Costa Rican sound artist Alejandro Sánchez Nuñez, and the poems of Elise Plain, Juan Andrés García Román, Marco Aguilar Sanabria and Susan Campos-Fonseca. Exploring the boundaries between music and Noise, sound and word, organic and cybernetic body, singing Human and "inner jungle," the album counts with the voice of Ana Echandi, Martha Mooke’s Viola, and Alex Sterling’s Sound engineering. Dystopia of desire that “pricks” asceticism ... as in the "Aggression" summarized by Frida Kahlo in her A Few Small Nips of 1935, showing the murder of a woman. The lover stabbed to death, says in his defense a phrase that crowns the work: "... but it was but a few small nips." The accuracy of this expression summarizes Minimal Aggression.
Julián De La Chica
Photo by Pedro Martí
Julián De La Chica and Susan Campos-Fonseca explore the minimal act of sound which travels without pretension, ascetic, going abyss. This is an act of resistance, "Nips" in a saturated society where "everything feels" where we drown in the "everything possible", empty.
Julian De La Chica debuts at Carnegie Hall
Monday, March 28, 2016, 7:30 pm, @ Carnegie Hall in New York City, Irreverence Group Music - IGM celebrates the album's release of alternative singer Radmila Lolly. The concert premieres works by New York based Colombian composer Julián De La Chica: String Quartet No.1 Op. 7 performed by the cutting edge Scorchio Quartet and Four Short Stories at the Standard Hotel Op. 6 performed by Tenor José Heredia. De La Chica, a post minimalist, takes on the challenge of exploring different ways of listening to the world.
Monday, March 28, 2016, 7:30 pm, @ Carnegie Hall in New York City, Irreverence Group Music - IGM celebrates the album's release of alternative singer Radmila Lolly. The concert premieres works by New York based Colombian composer Julián De La Chica: String Quartet No.1 Op. 7 performed by the cutting edge Scorchio Quartet and Four Short Stories at the Standard Hotel Op. 6 performed by Tenor José Heredia. De La Chica, a post minimalist, takes on the challenge of exploring different ways of listening to the world.
Program
Preludes Op. 8 (*)
No. 1Nocturnal & Circular Images Op. 5
No. 1 Illumination
No. 6 Retrospective
String Quartet No. 1 Op. 7 (*)
No. 1
No. 2
No. 3
No. 4
No. 5
Intermission
Four Short Stories at the Standard Hotel Op. 6 (*)
No. 1 Jengibre
No. 2 Libertad
No. 3 Eros
No. 4 Autodestrucción
Präludium: (Aufruf) Gesegnete Dunkelheit (*)
Ave Maria (*)
(*) World Premiere
Program Notes
The modern age is all about saturation. The music of Julián De La Chica takes on the challenge of exploring different ways of listening to the world. Listening to this perspective can be daunting to the contemporary ear. The notion of complexity as synonymous with quality, the saturation of the sound landscape and productions that represent the so-called post-post-symphonic great culture deafens us ... why? The reason lies in our need for saturation, rational self-complacency in excess, in the spectacle where nudity is not enough; where open flesh and blood, even death, do not sate us …
The works gathered in this concert tie a sole string. They are the anatomy of a knot, as in the Japanese art of shibari literally "bind" the saturated body, and this bond, releasing the possibility of sensuality and sophisticated listening. In the first half of the concert, a selection of Mr. De La Chica's works for piano: Prelude Op. 8 No. 1 (Premiere) and Nocturnal & Circular Images Op. 5, No.1 Illumination and No. 6, Retrospective (Included in his latest album: Nocturnal & Circular Images Op. 5 - IGM, 2015) accompany the premiere of his String Quartet No. 1 Op. 7 (V Cycles) performer by the Scorchio Quartet, known by its versatility and sound in music ranging from Philip Glass to David Bowie.
Mr. De La Chica composed a piece for a string quartet that communes with his Cycle Op. 5. This work does not speak of the Colombian composer living in New York City; it is a pilgrimage. The piano and the string quartet are traces of this journey of identity which is, in short, destruction. The inner sound, is the deepest for those who create from the musical abyss. Sound culture around us weaves nets like mermaid songs and Penelope mantles ... he who seeks his sound needs to choose; and home is not always Ithaca. Mr. De La Chica, as Samuel Beckett, knows that companionship is being "alone" and, as in the nighttime images of William Blake, speaks of the unfathomable path with the smallest gesture of a human hand.
The Four Short Stories at the Standard Hotel Op.6, written for string quartet, two singers and Soprano/tenor soloist, are based on short stories written by the composer during his first months living in New York. The Scorchio Quartet and tenor José Heredia explore the possibility of the stories as fractures where light eventually enters. Anthony Majewski and Elisa Nikoloulias from the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus perform voices making "noise", evoking the soundscape of everyday repetition. The set is a look at this meeting place where everyone is alone. The big city gives them a break when they simply sit and listen as ephemeral flowers on a table at the Standard Hotel.
Präludium: (Aufruf) Gesegnete Dunkelheit and Ave Maria, as in Mr. De La Chica's Mandala cycle (Album Minimal Aggression - IGM, 2015) the ascetic exercise to which the composer is subjected, imposes the maximum restriction of means, looking for a minimum that is full of possibility, concludes as it initiates, taking the aegis of cycles Op. 5, 6 and 7. The image of a room in the middle of nowhere, and absolute self-awareness in that one room, are the essence of these works.
The concert is based on a single principle: think saturation from the possibility of a "Trans-minimal-aggression". Mr. De La Chica considers himself to be an "experimenter", not a "composer". However, he creates a micro-universe from atomic naked sound. The skin is a set of pores traversed by particles of world. The music of Mr. De La Chica explores the liminal atomic spaces between these pores and the world.
Susan Campos - Fonseca, PhD
Musicologist and composer
Radmila Lolly
Scorchio Quartet &
Julián De La Chica
Photo by Hassan Malik
Minimalismo. Complejidad de lo esencial.
Cuando tenía 9 años de edad recuerdo haber quedado paralizado en frente de la televisión de mis padres. Una enorme en caja blanco y negro me hablaba de manera pecaminosa. Lo que escuché jamás lo he olvidado. Fue como si el mundo abriera para mi un universo secreto y mágico que me invitaba a su encuentro. Siempre en búsqueda/creando fantasías cotidianas.
Cuando tenía 9 años de edad recuerdo haber quedado paralizado en frente de la televisión de mis padres. Una enorme en caja blanco y negro me hablaba de manera pecaminosa. Lo que escuché jamás lo he olvidado. Fue como si el mundo abriera para mi un universo secreto y mágico que me invitaba a su encuentro. Siempre en búsqueda/creando fantasías cotidianas.
By Julian De La Chica
Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawing #370
Courtesy by the MET
Reflexiones/anécdotas sobre el Minimalismo (Notas del Concierto de Leonardo Gell)
I
Llamé a mi maestra de piano y le pedí que me hablara sobre lo que estaba escuchando en esa TV. Su respuesta fue bastante puntual: “Es monótono, aburrido y repetitivo. No contiene mayor intelectualidad ni mayor profundidad”. Nunca olvidé esas palabras, sobre todo porque a los 9 años, significaron casi que un trastorno mental. Me quedé pensando y seguía extasiado. Pensé que, pese a que mi maestra ostentaba los grandes títulos universitarios que encantan en nuestras sociedades académicas, y pese a que su opinión era totalmente respetable, yo seguiría mi instinto “poco intelectual” y “poco profundo”, hacia aquello que me tenía embelesado. Nunca he condicionado algo o a alguien, por criterios de terceras personas, aún cuando provengan de casi, pontificables personajes.
II (Pasaron los años)
Estaba en un viejo Teatro de Roma. Salgo del Conservatorio de Santa Cecila y de camino me encuentro con dos estrenos en el cine: Chicago (The Musical) y The Hours. Ambas, en horario similar. Decidí - Cautivado con la mirada de Meryl Streep- optar por Stephen Daldry. Minutos después quedaba nuevamente embelesado, tal y como cuando tenía 9 años... ¿Quién era ese compositor que podía callar a un chico tímido, con problemas de concentración y atención? Su nombre era Philip Glass.
III (Continuación)
En el año 2004 presenté Corrida Musical, uno de mis tantos fracasos musicales. En la mitad de la plaza de toros de la Hacienda el Pórtico, esperaba un maravilloso piano Steinway. El era el toro que esperaba en la arena y yo, el matador. (Ya se que suena espantoso -lo sé) ¿La diferencia? acá no había sangre. Solo amor. Yo salía montando un caballo andalúz y el repertorio, en su gran mayoría, era de compositores de la España tradicional. A muchos les gustó el concierto, uno de mis tantos experimentos con música eletrónica, batería y fusion con otros artistas. Cada obra tenía un fin. El concierto fue modestamente aceptado, no en tanto que una de las obras, causó gran choque con un crítico de mi querida Bogotá (a mitad del concierto había cerrado la tapa del piano y me había quedado estático). Durante más de 3 minutos, el sonido de aquella noche había cobrado el protagonismo que yo le había arrebatado; esto fue para mi, el preludio de mis experimentos sobre la música que encierra el aparente silencio. Tiempo después descubrí que esa idea no era tan loca y que décadas atrás, ya el gran John Cage, había causado revuelo con su magistral 4:33. (No siempre se encuentra apoyo cuando buscas caminos diferentes a los establecidos).
IV
Año 2008. Estoy trabajando con el productor musical Tato Lopera. Finalizamos una de las sesiones y me pregunta: ¿Conoces esta pelicula? (Koyaanisqatsi) - le dije que no. -Te la recomiendo - Contestó. Esa misma noche, cuando puse la peli en casa, regresé a mi infancia. Igual que sucedió en Ratatouille, cuando el crítico se sienta a la mesa y un primer bocado lo lleva de regreso a casa de su madre, así volví yo; ahí estaba, parado en frente de esa enorme caja en blanco y negro. Esa era Mamma.
Mi relación amorosa con Philip Glass continúa intacta, y con él, me sumergí en un apasionante mundo, que algunos definen, como minimalismo. Un enamoramiento que me llevó a tener concubinato con Terry Riley, Steve Reich, John Cage, La Monte Young, Yann Tiersen, Michael Nyman, Steve Martland, Ligeti, Henryk Gorecki, Arvo Part, Bjork, Wim Mertens, John Tavener, etc...
La música minimalista es mas compleja de lo que se piensa y abarca una gran cantidad de mundos musicales. El término como tal de Minimalismo se conoce desde la década de los 60 y nace, entre otros, en espacios alternativos de San Francisco y Nueva York, de la mano del desarrollo de la música electrónica y, fruto en gran medida, de la contestación a la propuesta de la música moderna del entonces: Cierto “feísmo” que nacía de las obras de Schonberg, donde el discurso y el concepto, parecían, según algunos, estar totalmente perdidos y/o acabados. (Según Paco Gómez Martín- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid y su escrito Minimalismo y matemáticas: Clapping Music "En efecto, allí donde el modernismo es resueltamente atonal, el minimalismo es claramente modal o tonal; allí donde el modernismo se muestra aperiódico, fragmentario, el minimalismo se caracteriza por una gran regularidad rítmica; y allí donde el modernismo se presenta con una gran complejidad de estructura y de textura, el minimalismo es simplemente transparente".
Su pre-inicio se atribuye al “Serialismo”, tendencia musical dodecafónica que repite alturas en la misma posición de octavas y a la mono/estructuralidad, que trabaja obras estáticas que crean un efecto sonoro, llamado por algunos como puntillismo. El “Minimalismo”, se construye a partir de pocas ideas (mínimas), el uso constante de un mismo tema y según Jhon Adams: 1. a perceptible pulse, 2. emphatic tonality within a relatively slow harmonic rhythm and 3. a repetition of small cells or motives, which over time create larger architectonic structures.
Muchos compositores hacen música minimalista, pero esto no significa que ellos sean minimalistas. ¿Qué es entonces el minimalismo? ¿La correcta utilización de pocos elementos? ¿La repetición y series de elementos estructurales y armónicos durante tiempos inimaginables? ¿El juego y choque de ritmos que producen des-agrado, en gran medida por sus efectos colaterales? El minimalismo, al menos para mi, propone una mirada compleja al interior del propio experimentador: Callar el ruido, para escuchar lo que queda, aunque continúe siendo ruido. Esto si que es realmente complejo.
El Minimalismo ha sido crucial en el desarrollo del naciente universo electrónico. Su protagonismo actual se evidencia en géneros como el pop, el vocal/electrónico, hip hop y rap. (Eso, sin hablar de su presencia en otros campos de las artes como la pintura, escultura, y arquitectura). El Minimalismo ha representado desde sus inicios (y aquí NO me remonto a la música y corrientes ancestrales de oriente, ni a su presencia en muchas de las culturas étnicas), una constante búsqueda individual que agrede a un mercado colectivo; con el tiempo se convierte en moda y esa búsqueda y/o moda de lo mínimo, lo básico, lo esencial (Saturados hoy, en gran parte desde las redes sociales y/o Media), ha generado aristas estilísticas que convergen dentro de toda una corriente de vida actual.
El dia de hoy, el concertista cubano Leonardo Gell, nos propone mirar más allá de un aparente programa de recital. MINIMALPIANO De Bach a de la Chica, propone, además de la experiencia sonora, reflexionar las raíces mismas del minimalismo desde la visión interpretativa de Gell. Personalmente creo, que antes que una teoría sobre creadores minimalistas, Gell nos ofrece un viaje experimental a través de la música de compositores que como en el caso de J. S. Bach (compositor que hizo parte de un período tan particular y tan antagónico al minimalismo como lo fue el Barroco) ofrece una visión a-temporal de lo que podríamos considerar minimalismo hoy según una interpretación. No olvidemos que hay quienes aseguran que el mismo Bach, Satie y Ravel, por nombrar solo algunos, proponían este proceso en muchos de sus trabajos. Movimientos cíclicos, juegos rítmicos entre las voces y evolución y crecimiento de la mono/estructura que se convierte en poli-estructura (¿Alguno además recuerda la música renacentista y el bajo continuo? (pronto compartiré, además, mi experiencia escuchando hace poco en el MET, la Filarmónica de Nueva York interpretándo el muy sonado Bolero de Ravel).
El Minimalismo recupera, en gran medida, una propuesta que contradice el agotamiento tonal. El re-nacer armónico-melódico en un contexto formal y académico. Nos abrimos hacia la nueva determinacion y una neo-tonalidad, llevándolo a una nueva escala del post-modernismo en nuestra música actual. Minimalismo, pues, no significa el absolutismo de la nada, tampoco todo aquello que es pobre en ideas y desarrollo; el minimalismo se construye desde una experiencia y célula básica (ojo, no una célula simple. "Básico" es necesario como elemento estructural, la "simpleza" solo es revestimiento. Una célula minimalista puede ser básica y muy compleja o básica y muy simple) con un constante y repetido uso de sus elementos estructurales (rítmo, melodía y armonía) "DISCURSO", produciendo una experiencia sonora que lleva al oyente a un nuevo espacio interno de su conciencia musical. En conclusión, el minimalismo abarca un inmenso universo de propuesta, que crece, en gran medida, por las herramientas compositivas de los creadores; no obstante, minimalismo no solo remite a arpegios, poliritmos o amplios silencios. Su esencia es extensa y reitero, para nada nueva, aunque solo hayamos oido hablar de minimalismo "oficialmente" a partir del siglo XX.
Faltará mucho tiempo para resolver muchas de los inquietudes que encierra el minimalismo. Seguramente, como todo en la historia de las artes, llevará siglos y mucho estudio de la música creada hoy, entender su completa esencia. No me cabe duda, que su musical desarrollo subyugado por una matemática previamente estudiada, lleva a resultados (en esto estoy de acuerdo con Nico Muhly), incluso físicos, algo sin duda inquietante, que será motivo de estudio en un tiempo quizá, no muy lejano.
V (Un día cualquiera)
BAM, Brooklyn, NY. El Teatro en silencio. Comienzan los sintetizadores. Einstein on the Beach de Philip Glass. Horas y horas de aparente repetición. Mi cerbrero convulcionó y mi interior callo... Re- descubría una experiencia sonora, que jamás había vivido. Luego comprendí parte de esa filosofía, aquella que siempre estaba buscando, pero que no la encontraba. Una densa oscuridad que eclipsa tus sentidos, tu razón y que te conduce a pensar, si todo fue i-rrelevante, quizá vacío o si habrías visitado ese infierno Dantesco que todos guardamos. En cualquiera de los casos, algo que jamás pasa desapercibido.
Muchos atribuyen mis experimentos a creaciones minimalistas. Yo solo repito las voces de una cotidianidad. Pero en las noches, después de comulgar con el ruido de mis miedos, pienso en ese día (cuando tenía 9 años) y el descubrir de aquel insólito lugar donde reside lo mínimo. ¿Una nueva experiencia sonora? Unos lo llaman minimalismo, yo lo veo como una forma y experiencia de la existencia.
Illumination & Sacro-sanct | Estreno mundial
El próximo 29 de abril a las 7:00 pm, el pianista cubano Leonardo Gell ofrecerá un recital en la Sala María Clara Cullell, (Escuela de Artes musicales - Universidad de Costa Rica), titulado: MINIMALPIANO - De Bach a De la Chica. Una íntima sesión musical, donde Gell propone una mirada a los inicios del movimiento musical Minimalista. El repertorio tiene como común denominador: El discurso pianístico elaborado desde algunos de los conceptos que se consideran baluartes del Minimalismo. Gell interpretará obras de Bach, Cage, Glass, Pärt, Nyman & De La Chica.
El próximo 29 de abril a las 7:00 pm, el pianista cubano Leonardo Gell ofrecerá un recital en la Sala María Clara Cullell, (Escuela de Artes musicales - Universidad de Costa Rica), titulado: MINIMALPIANO - De Bach a De la Chica. Una íntima sesión musical, donde Gell propone una mirada a los inicios del movimiento musical Minimalista. El repertorio tiene como común denominador: El discurso pianístico elaborado desde algunos de los conceptos que se consideran baluartes del Minimalismo. Gell interpretará obras de Bach, Cage, Glass, Pärt, Nyman & De La Chica.
El próximo martes 29 de Abril, el pianista cubano Leonardo Gell re-planteará una temática de interpretación construída a partir de un “toque” muy amartillado y con una mínima utilización de elementos narrativos. Concluir una ejecución “cruda” casi desnuda, de las obras que propone.
Entre el repertorio seleccionado para este recital, el Sr. Gell interpretará tres obras que pertenecen a la serie Nocturnal & Circular images Op. 5 de Julián De La Chica: dos de ellas como estreno mundial y la otra, como estreno en Costa Rica. (El N.2 se estrenó en La Habana el pasado mes de febrero).
El Ciclo Op. 5 pertenece a una segunda temática experimental. En el 2012, De La Chica presentó en su álbum IRREVERENCE la primera temática Op. 4: un compendio de doce trabajos para piano, de los que se generaron experiencias musicales que nacieron de la cotidianidad de New York. De La Chica experimentó con géneros como el Urbano (Classical Flow), Electrónica (Parusía) Clásico Contemporáneo (The Hours), o Latino (Adiós Cuba). Experimentos construídos a partir de conceptos Minimalistas, fusiones y estilos que emergen en la noche, representados por imágenes y repeticiones. De ahí que el álbum sea considerado ecléctico. (Susan Campos Fonseca habla de Irreverence)
Estas tres obras, tienen además una dedicatoria muy especial, dice el De La Chica: “Son obras que narran mis vivencias con tres personas a quienes estimo y admiro y que llegaron a mi vida de manera diferente, pero todas unidas por un mísmo vínculo que sorprende". El *NCI N.1 “Illumination” es compuesto en honor al compositor costarricense Marvin Camacho, el NCI N.2 “The return” en honor al pianista cubano Leonardo Gell, y el NCI N.3 "Sacro-sanct", en honor a la artista sonora, Susan Campos Fonseca.
IGM.com Habló con Leonardo Gell sobre su próximo concierto y su visión acerca de estos tres trabajos para piano:
IGM - ¿Cómo definiría estos tres trabajos pianísticos desde su concepción como intérprete, y dedicatario, en el caso del N. 2?
LG - Son tres trabajos para piano muy diferentes entre sí, que reflejan claramente, a mi modo de ver, la imagen que crea el compositor de las tres personas a las que están dedicados cada uno de ellos. Resulta sumamente interesante apreciar esto y, sin embargo, en ambos está el sello Julián De La Chica. Para mí ha sido una experiencia muy enriquecedora y de gran atractivo, pues, tanto el maestro Marvin Camacho como Susan Campos son grandes amigos y, desde ese punto de vista, ha resultado relativamente fácil comprender lo que De la Chica ha plasmado musicalmente. No obstante, como intérprete ha sido un gran desafío poder lograr, por ejemplo, la diferenciación del "toque" entre las manos que quiere el compositor, como también ese control absoluto en el discurso sonoro de estos preludios en cuanto a la mesura, control... que se debe tener. En este proceso de maduración y comprensión de las obras me ha ayudado mucho el trabajo conjunto que realizamos recientemente en Costa Rica, durante una visita que realizó Julián. Desde entonces, a partir de largas sesiones de trabajo, comprendí claramente lo que perseguía como propuesta conceptual y sonora en esta serie op.5.
IGM - ¿Por qué Julián De La Chica en MINIMALPIANO?
LG - Considero que Julián tiene obras importantes escritas para el piano que encajaban muy bien en el concepto que yo quería manejar con este recital. MINIMALpiano es un recorrido por algunos de los compositores más representativos que han hecho música minimalista, en el sentido del minimalismo como génesis ante la creación. En el caso muy específico de Julián, considero que es un joven músico que ha dado continuidad hasta nuestros días a esa corriente surgida décadas atrás y su obra habla por sí sola de calidad, seriedad y coherencia artística.
IGM - ¿Cómo pretende alinear De Bach a De La Chica?
LG - Ha sido algo muy complicado, porque no se trata de abordar a Bach, por ejemplo, como lo hemos hecho tradicionalmente muchos pianistas, utilizando todos los recursos expresivos que nos ofrece el piano como instrumento. De esa forma he intentado enfocar el trabajo de interpretación en muchas de las obras del recital. Cuando digo MINIMALpiano, hablo no sólo de compositores y obras concretas concebidas con ideas mínimas, sino también de proponer una interpretación minimalista, en cuanto a recursos manejados con el piano y en mi proyección interpretativa en general.
En el medio en el cual me desenvuelvo en Costa Rica, el recital ha generado cierta expectativa, y es que resulta poco frecuente una propuesta como ésta. Puede que no sea el típico recital del pianista concertista al que muchos estamos acostumbrados. Incluso, dentro de mi carrera es algo novedoso lo que voy a hacer. Solamente aspiro a que el público que asista a este primer recital de MINIMALpiano haga el mismo viaje y experimente algunas de las tantas sensaciones que he vivido haciendo esta música, buscando estas interpretaciones en obras y compositores que me han hecho ver la música de una manera diferente. Ha sido como un "viaje a la semilla", parafraseando al gran intelectual cubano Alejo Carpentier, hurgar en la esencia misma de lo que somos, esa sencillez que nos hace cuestionarnos en un mundo plagado de exuberancia y poses artísticas.