Exploring quijongo's multiphonic possibilities
Amarillo continuo [Continuous Yellow] is part of the Extended Quijongo Project, developed by Costa Rican composer and musicologist, Susan Campos-Fonseca. The work is the result of a music session during which Campos-Fonseca explores, together with fellow composers Kenneth Jiménez (double bass) and Alex Catona (cello), the work Amarillo continuo (1971) by Manuel de la Cruz González, a pioneer of the abstract art in Costa Rica. The plastic work thus becomes a graphic score.
This is the first time that quijongo has been used in a trio piece in this format, and this video documents its construction and world premiere. Quijongo is a traditional and unique musical instrument from Guanacaste in the north of Costa Rica. It’s a cultural heritage artifact, conserve the knowledge of a territory transform by the fusion between African, Asian and Indigenous’ sonic arts, brought together by colonial and oligarchic practices.
Slavery, hybridization and resilience materialize in this sounding treasure. Quijongo’s multiphonic possibilities are the result of the sum of the qualities of a strings and percussion instruments. In “Amarillo continuo” session, you can listen the versatility of quijongo in dialogue with Western instruments like the double bass and the cello.
The session was recorded on August 25, 2022 at Amón Solar, house of experimental arts and jazz in San José, Costa Rica. This was possible thanks to the collaboration of its director, José María Alfaro.
This production was made with the purpose of documenting the dialogue between experimental music, "free jazz" and quijongo, a cultural heritage of Costa Rica. The production also had the support of the Escuela de Artes Musicales of the Universidad de Costa Rica and New York’s record label Irreverence Group Music.
Read more: Guanacaste’s Quijongo: The Mystical Sound that Few Have Heard