Memorias Robadas

Commissioned by Vertixe Sonora

With texts by Gonzalo Arango and Ana García-Velásquez

 

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Different musical traditions coexist and mingle in Colombia, my native country. Many of them have disappeared; others have gone subway and exist in the private sphere of particular communities.

 

In music, as in all other aspects of society, Colombia is a country where memory is constantly stolen.

 

Memorias Robadas is an ode to the Afro-Colombian and indigenous cultures around Cali, where I grew up. These cultures have fascinated me since I was a child and are an integral part of me. The violence that is always looming around us, which is part of the dispossession, also bursts in this piece.

 

The micro-tonal tuning of the traditional marimba of the Colombian Pacific gives basis to the harmonic language. The rhythmic language is inspired by my memories of this music as well as by my rhythmic experience in dance.

Sound archives of communities, history, music, or personal interactions with different people and situations in Colombia enrich and contextualize this piece. They are an integral part of musical electronics.

 

This piece proposes a personal vision of different currents that constitute me. Although it denounces, it is not pamphleteering but aesthetic.

 

It was premiered in March 2021 by the ensemble Vertixe Sonora, in Galicia, Spain.