Cristián Alvear on Pilgrim Talk

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.