Info:

De La Chica: Paisaje Nihilista, 15 Poems by Susan Campos - Fonseca

Artists:
Yana Mann (Mezzo Soprano)
Julián De La Chica (Organs)

Texts:
Susan Campos - Fonseca

Composer:
Julián De La Chica

Format: Single
Release: Feb 25, 2022
Catalogue: IGM-036
GTIN/EAN/UPC: 4064832895735
Music Producer: Irreverence Group Music

Tracks:

Mandala, 6 poems by Susan Campos - Fonseca

01. Paisaje Nihilista, No. 1: Mandala 1
02. Paisaje Nihilista, No. 1: Mandala 2
03. Paisaje Nihilista, No. 1: Mandala 3
04. Paisaje Nihilista, No. 1: Mandala 4
05. Paisaje Nihilista, No. 1: Mandala 5 (Número humano)
06. Paisaje Nihilista, No. 1: Mandala 6 (Tritono)

Gowanus, 9 poems by Susan Campos - Fonseca

07. Gowanus No. 1
08. Gowanus No. 2
09. Gowanus No. 3
10. Gowanus No. 4
11. Gowanus No. 5
12. Gowanus No. 6
13. Gowanus No. 7
14. Gowanus No. 8
15. Gowanus No. 9

Notes:

In his Divine Comedy, Dante speaks of "circles". Hell is a cone, perhaps a snail, a spiral of moans, cries, songs, whispers, sighs, complaints... a sonorous, sacrificial horn, into which a man, guided by a poet, enters in search of the ideal, of " what was lost ". A structure reduced to the essential, stripped of excess elements. Asceticism, austerity, structural "purism", elemental geometry. The so-called "minimalism" in architecture could translate the infernal design of this synthesis: the human in its minimum-aggression. 

Listening from this perspective can be discouraging for the contemporary ear. The idea of "complexity" as a synonym of "quality", the "saturation" of the soundscape and of the productions that represent that supposed post-post-symphonist "great culture", deafen us... how could we listen to that hell in times where "the infernal" is not "the intimate", but the insatiable trans-media consumption of new stimuli.

Official Video

The historical direction does not play in our favor either, the idea of sound circles that cross walls, as in the Romanesque, as in the Gregorian chant, as in the songs of John Dowland, has few heirs, Bob Dylan, John Lennon, perhaps. Morton Feldman, Isang Yun wondered about that tradition where a sound was a way of knowing, multiple, unfathomable itself..., something that in the "ancient world", and in the countries of the East was the fundamental basis for any ethical-sound practice.

Questioning "the musical in excess", others like John Cage, Arvo Pärt, Michael Nyman, Philip Glass, to name a few well-known names, whose work and ideas serve as a reference. They teach us ways of listening that compose fearsome circles like those envisioned by Dante... why? The reason lies in our need for saturation, for "rational" self-indulgence in excess, in the spectacle where nudity is no longer enough, where open flesh and blood do not satiate either, not even death.  A simple circle, a man entering hell accompanied by a poet, leave us stunned with horror: "What a joke! More, we want more!”

No. We won't find that in Mandala. Julián De La Chica thinks in music VI completely ascetic poems, which, like the cover, have been created in the consciousness of that "silent knowledge" of which a shaman once spoke in the middle of the desert. Now, in the voice of Russian Mezzo Soprano Yana Mann, brought to presence as "song", they are released in the whirlwind of those terrible but simple circles of the Divine Comedy. The "aggression" of the minimum, of knowing-itself, lies there.

Susan Campos-Fonseca, PhD
Composer & Musicologist

Credits

Presented by Silent theme production
Produced by Irreverence Group Music (IGM)
Texts by Susan Campos - Fonseca
Music by Julián De La Chica

Yana Mann - Mezzo Soprano
Julián De La Chica - Organs

Vocal recorded by Yana Mann
at Yana Mann Studio, Dubai, UAE
Mixed by Julián De La Chica
at IGM Lab, Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by Shochi Shams
Executive producer:
Silent theme production

Notes by Susan Campos - Fonseca
Cover design by IGM
Photography by Alisa Poturaeva

Julián De La Chica’s music is published
by Vagabundo Music Publishing, Inc. (BMI)
Made in US. Total time: 21 min | IGM - 036
Ⓟ and Ⓒ  2022 STP