BELTRAN GONZALEZ composer & conductor
sunken
for amplified ensemble
premiered on 19.02.22
Berlin, Germany
Beltrán González conductor
KOLLEKTIV UNRUHE:
Judith Gerhardt, Oboe
Marco Malatesta, Trumpet
Rafael Mota, Trombone
Jo Wei Liu, Percussion
Michael Cohen-Weissert, Piano
Elisabeth Müller, Accordion
Moritz Kayser, Cello
Soyeon Ahn, Contrabass
Duration: 15'30''
sunken sounds,
sunken instruments,
playing in a vast, dark, underwater field.
After an exhaustive research on underwater recordings, a selection of sea-animals, human-made sounds, and meteorological factors served as an inspiration to find new instrumental possibilities. Nevertheless, these new instrumental elements continue their development in a pure musical way, transforming themselves from pure nature- imitation to autonomous musical material. The final result is a pure musical piece, with an underwater-atmosphere reminiscence. All instruments are amplified (there are no electronics), in order to expand their sound density and create a condensed soundscape.
I started by doing a research on underwater recordings in order to find particular sounds, and also focusing on micro-sound. The recordings made with Hydrophones can show unheard sounds (for example from mollusks)that are far beyond our preconception. I classified the sound in three main categories:
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Environmental sound (Water, Wind, Waves, Storms, etc.)
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Sea-animals (Mollusks, Shellfish, Dolphins, etc.)
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Human-made Sounds (Sonar, Ships, Snowmotorbike, Engines, etc.)
These are the main resources I used:
https://clearseas.org/en/underwater-noise/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6Nbqwm48yM
Here one nice example of Mantis Shrimp:
these recordings served as inspiration for the development of instrumental techniques. After an exhaustive work with performers we arrived to certain sonorities that fit into the sounding world we were aiming. Here some examples:
Some pictures of the concert: