Gonzalo Biffarella: Mestizaje.(Review)

Compact disc, 1997, Chrysopee Electronique -- Bourges Vol. 10 LDC 278 1108; available from Mnemosyne Musique Media, Place Andre Malraux, BP 39, 18001 Bourges Cedex, France; telephone (33) 2-48-20-41-87; fax (33) 2-48-20-45-51; electronic mail imebourges@gmeb.fr; World Wide Web www.gmeb.fr

One of the recent compact discs from the French label Chrysopee Electronique - Bourges features seven works by the Argentinean composer Gonzalo Biffarella. Mr. Biffarella is active in his native country as well as other parts of South America, the United States, Canada, and Europe in the creation and presentation of electroacoustic and multimedia works. The compositions presented on this recording were produced in a variety of studios including Laboratorio de Investigacion y Produccion Musical/ Buenos Aires (LIPM), Bourges, Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), and Padova University (Italy).

The first four works on the disc form a cycle based upon recordings of chants and ritual instruments from the Wichis Indians of northern Argentina and was produced between 1993 and 1996. The first of these pieces draws upon the concept of "Mestizaje," a point of meeting and fusion, for both its title and point of departure. Short fragments of voice and harp are submitted to a range of transformations and result in a wide variety of textures and gestural phrases. A tentative, but engaging, discourse is established between unprocessed chanting and more abstract transformations of the source materials. The second work of the cycle, Rastros, takes the sounds of indigenous violin-playing as its starting point and oscillates between dense textures of processed violin fragments and isolated, extensively transformed, explosive singular sounds. Poetic modifications and combinations of sung and whispered voices in Plegaria, the third work of the cycle, create an evocative, undulating piece that at times harkens back to voices and motives from Mestizaje. The final work of the cycle, Orgenes, utilizes materials from the first three pieces and serves as a summary and conclusion to ...