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Reviewed by:
  • Tutuguri by Felipe Otondo
  • Ross Feller
Felipe Otondo : Tutuguri. Compact disc, 2013, Scd28070; Sargasso, P. O. Box 221, Baldock, SG7 6WZ, UK; telephone: +44 (0) 1462892181; http://www.sargasso.com/.

Composer Felipe Otondo studied acoustics in Chile where he also began composing and performing music for experimental theater productions. If this compact disc is any indication, his music has certainly benefitted from this unusual combination of disciplines. The liner notes for this disc contain quotes by Conlon Nancarrow and Antonin Artaud, effectively mapping the conceptual and aesthetic territory covered therein. Otondo's music combines a keen sense of cyclic, irregular pulsation with an awareness of hallucinations, and extreme or marginal states of consciousness that are represented timbrally. The music on this disc is theatrical, but in an abstract, nonnarrative sense.

In the first piece, Irama, separate pulse patterns, each distinguished with a different synthetic timbre, are gradually overlaid. These patterns are altered through sudden changes or suspensions of tempo. The result is that one simultaneously hears different time scales, a device that Otondo, perhaps, borrowed from Nancarrow. This piece is also characterized by extended speed variation techniques, but unlike those found in traditional musique concrète here the materials are all synthetically derived.

According to the liner notes, the title refers to the "time interval between two successive sounds or actions. The term can also be used to refer to rhythmic relationships between any of the subdividing parts in gamelan performance as well as tempo in general." One of Otondo's stated purposes in making this piece was to "investigate distinctive rhythmic features of traditional gamelan music using the unique timbral explorations of contemporary electroacoustic music" through the exploration of what he calls "micro-rhythmic" materials. With respect to his goals for Irama, Otondo is largely successful. One hears large gong-like sounds that sound and function much like their counterparts in gamelan music, as well as clearly defined rhythmic cycles of different, yet related, lengths. These attributes, along with the use of resonance and decay to suggest virtual space, are present to some degree in all four works on this disc.

Teocalli, the second piece on Tutuguri, was inspired by a short story by Julio Cortázar in which a man riding a motorcycle lands in the hospital after an accident. While [End Page 93] there he hallucinates about being a fugitive from a group of Aztecs who are looking for victims for human sacrifice. The story oscillates between the hospital environment and the jungle. The composer utilizes the concept of a parallel narrative form, switching back and forth between two distinct types of musical texture. Source materials were derived from field recordings taken in Mexico City, and from interviews with Zapotec-speaking women from various locations in Mexico. The vocal samples seem to not merely have semiotic purpose but also serve melodic and even harmonic duties. Hence, they are integrated into the musical fabric. Sudden changes of texture using manipulated samples and the aforementioned resonance treatment effectively keeps the listener off-balance. This binary oscillation makes for an intriguing listening experience especially if heard with the program notes in mind.

The third piece, Ciguri, was partly composed from another piece of Otondo's titled To Have Done with the Judgment of Artaud, which was commissioned for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This composition explores the inharmonic timbral character of various bell sounds that are placed within expanding and contracting time frameworks.

The piece begins with fast, reiterated attacks of the bell timbres (using frequency modulation synthesis) that gradually build in volume and timbral density, culminating with larger, thicker bell tones. At this point, high frequency sustained resonance takes over the focus. Eventually these sustains are juxtaposed with other bell tones sounding like an mbira (African 'thumb' piano) but one made out of hollow metal tubes rather than flattened metal tongs, and Tibetan prayer bowls being struck with small sticks. Otondo's pairing of slowly evolving textures with slowly moving spatialization works well in this piece. Ciguri ends with a long fade-out of the high frequency resonance in a particularly "pure" form that is almost painful to hear. This is not unlike the experience of listening to...

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