Structured improvisations elaborated in a creative workshop for guitarists (PhD students) in the second semester of 2023

(The performances used a circular setup of six loudspeakers, and were rendered binaurally for the video recordings. The use of headphones is recommended.)

Sebastián Barroso weaves musical motifs by Violeta Parra, Steve Reich and Bach in an approach guided by concepts of experimental performance. It explores sound prolongation and transposition, spectral warp and motif variations. (video link)

Renato Mendes explores motifs from Brouwer’s pieces–mainly Elogio de la Danz and La Spiral Eterna–, ending with a percussive texture. Long tones, superimposed variations and spatialized reverberation characterize this performance. (video link)

Augusto Armondes chose three contrasting musical excerpts (flamenco music, a percussive guitar piece, a recorded testimony of a Brazilian viola player and singer songwriter), looping continuously in background. The spectral content of the live playing (relative low, medium and high regions) controls the volume of each extract, and the live amplitude controls the overall mix volume. (video link)

GuiaRT and Pandora

Rique e Nunque (2023), by Sérgio Freire, is a piece that explores two augmented instruments developed in our lab, a nylon guitar (GuiaRT) and a snare-drum (Pandora). In this performance, the majority of processed guitar sounds are reproduced through the drum: low strings resonances, long tones, variations of diverse motifs in a dialogue form. The main motif of Gilberto Gil’s Batmacumba is explored in the central section. (video link)