Cristián Alvear
Pieza para
Guitarra Afinada
USA Pilgrim Talk PT37
cassette (2019)
Following Sarah Hennies collaboration
with Cristián Alvear from 2016; Orienting
Response for guitar on Mappa Editions, and the 2015 Diatribes &
Cristián Alvear 3” cd Roshambo (trio)
on 1000füssler,
which both landed on my desk for review, here is a new one hour 29 minute solo piece for
guitar from Cristián Alvear
recorded at Estudios Madre Selva, Santiago de Chile in April 2018. The slightly mysterious Pilgrim Talk tape
label is a good home for this particular piece of work as their recent release
schedule features modern composition including Baroque Classics (for Electronic Oscillators) – Couperin, Telemann,
Scarlatti et al – and Parvae Harmoniae
by Nick Hoffman.
On Pieza para
Guitarra Afinada, Alvear has worked out a way to influence one’s
perceptions for mysterious purposes. Time
bends. Listen in awe as glum murders of
crows contemplate the dwindling woodland habitat. Alvear’s classical guitar exerts an iron grip
on the listener’s senses though his use of subtle modulation threaded within
structural repetition. It is as if the
instrument itself is audibly succumbing to a depressive episode. The piece begins forlornly and continues with
pitiless efficacy. Alvear is commenting
on his surroundings; his world – our world - if you want my opinion. He make the guitar chime like plague
bells. It some mental temerity on
Alvear’s part not just to compose such an unflinching piece of music but to
then relentlessly rehearse and perform it himself as well. Lesser souls would easily give up after half
an hour and gone to the pub. I’m making
it sound faintly dark and ominous and depressing – not which the music actually
is - but actually, I think Alvear is attempting to push notions of the
classical guitar recital to the very edges.
Theres no doubting Alvear’s commitment to his
instrument. He knows the thing inside
out. What is also remarkable, is his
accomplishments as a composer. A process
of stripping back – ideologically as well as musically. Like neighbours who remove mature planting to
“get more light” but what they are actually doing is reminding us of how uneasily
close we have been placed to each other.
Proximity. Claustrophobia. This music is a salve to those of us who are
sick of having to deal with fellow inhabitants of this world who “don’t like
trees”.
It’s nice to see this on cassette – the aforementioned
tape with Sarah Hennies from Mappa was presented in a wooden box with handmade
inserts and is a beautiful object. Quite
a lot of my non-music friends now express surprise when I start talking about
new releases on cassette; mostly they are surprised the format is still being
manufactured. “My cassette deck broke
ten years ago and I didn’t see the point in replacing it” is a common
articulation. But for those of us whose
first exposure to pre-recorded music was courtesy of the cassette-tape format
and, more importantly, whose minds were opened by the ability to easily use
them to make one’s own recordings,
it’s hard to let the format go.
Alvear is co-curator of Relincha Festival in Valdivia
and, together with Santiago Astaburuaga, directs LOTE, an ensemble focused on
the production of experimental scores. In
addition, he coordinates concerts and
experimental music workshops in rural areas of the Los Lagos region of Chile. For this, and other more prosaic bureaucratic
reasons, Alvear rarely visits the UK, although at the time of writing, I
believe he will be touring Europe and the UK in May. Keep an eye out – that prospect is not to be
missed.
