Miguel Farías (*1983)

© Max Sotomayor MIGUEL FARÍAS (*1983) 1 Up & down: Lecturas Críticas (2016) 22:56 1 Laurent Bruttin, clarinet 4 PHACE: for bass / contrabass clarinet and ensemble Ensemble Contrechamps Lars Mlekusch, saxophone Michael Wendeberg, conductor Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano 2 Estelas (2010) 11:59 Berndt Thurner, percussion for clarinet, percussion, piano and violoncello 2 Ensemble Contrechamps: Roland Schueler, cello Laurent Bruttin, clarinet Simeon Pironkoff, conductor 3 CBR (2013) 12:01 François Volpé, percussion for flute, percussion, piano and violoncello Benjamin Kopp, piano 5 Ensemble Vortex: Oliviert Marron, violoncello Anne Gillot, bass clarinet 4 Palettes (2013) 09:03 Max Dazas, percussion for baritone sax, percussion, piano and violoncello 3 Ensemble Zero: Jocelyne Rudasiwa, cembalo Guillermo Lavado, flute Mauricio Carrasco, guitar 5 Une voix liquide (2018) 13:28 Luis Alberto Latorre, piano Hannah Walter, violin for ensemble and electronics Gerardo Salazar, percussion Benoît Morel, viola Celso López, violoncello Aurélien Ferrete, cello TT 69:38 Arturo Corrales, electronics 3 I can imagine that a listener who has never heard of Miguel Farías, might be con- founded by the names of the pieces and performers: is he a French or a Chilean composer? I would argue that, like many Chileans working in contemporary music, Farías is trying to find a place as a cosmopolitan figure. Born in Venezuela, he studied in France and Switzerland, and his music has been premiered and has received sev- The rise of experimental and new music eral awards in both those and many other in Chile is a relatively recent phenome- European countries. What sets Farías aside, non. Since the end of Pinochet’s dictator- both in Chilean and global terms, is the ship there has been an explosion of names, consciousness he brings to that border- festivals, works and opportunities. Indeed, line position, of the difficult place his music one could say that the Chilean contempo- (written in the academic Western written rary music scene today is a lively one, with tradition) has in a global world. Traditional- important international connections. Few ly, for most Latin American composers con- voices are more representative of the suc- cerned with the place of their music and cess of that scene than the one of Miguel their role inside that tradition, the solution Farías, particularly during this last decade. has been the inclusion and transformation The recordings for this album, in fact, all of local elements into a language that could come from this same decade, which saw be read as cosmopolitan. While Farías does some of Miguel’s most important success- this sometimes – subtly, as I will comment es, like his operas Renca, París y Liendres below –, most of the time he goes beyond (2012) and El Cristo de Elqui (2018). How- and besides that approach. ever, this is an album of mostly instrumen- tal pieces for ensemble, from Estelas (2010, The disc opens with Up & Down, written for written for the Ensemble Contrechamps) to the Ensemble Contrechamps in 2016, and Une voix liquide from 2018, for the Ensem- one of the most substantial works he has yet ble Vortex. composed, both in musical as in philosophi- 4 5 cal terms. In the piece, Farías confronts the at least in these pieces, is often one of ap- being portrayed. The same happens with the region of the world from where he is notion set by Theodor Adorno of music as propriation, but from a position that is anti- the music: the usual harmonic blocks that writing from. But, as mentioned before, this a hierarchical construction in which certain thetical to the exotic appropriation that Eu- appear in several works by Farías, oc- is never done from a position of exoticism or musics (the European classical tradition) are ropean music has done of Latin America. cur here in a way that impedes the listen- even of forcing the listener to discern it. Of- above others (the popular music industry). The soundscape of the music is often frag- er from connecting with them in any emo- ten, it is just an aspect of the construction That perspective, which has influenced ideas mentary, were melodic and harmonic ges- tional or concrete way. Farías talks about or even the early renderings of the piece. like “cultural industry” and “mass music”, as tures are no more than that – gestures –, “harmonic gradients”, a concept that con- For example, the use of percussion instru- well as approaches to popular music and the embroided in the complex universe of veys the problem of the piece visually, but ments like the “bongó” in Estelas conveys, media, is profoundly problematic when read sounds presented to the listener and per- perhaps one could also talk about undevel- through rhythm, a powerful connection with from a Latin American perspective, where formers. He doesn’t reject melody, nor ton- oped harmonies, constructed from a posi- the Caribbean and the “cumbia” tradition. those distinctions and frontiers are often al or modal harmony, but all these famil- tion of musical subalternity. It is the listen- Even more explicit in this sense is CBR, a blurred. Farías, who is at the time of the pub- iar elements are presented as equals, part er who is asked with making them become piece which Miguel dedicated to his father lication of this recording a candidate for a of a network of several other elements in whatever they can become, from a posi- (a man with a passion for salsa and engi- PhD in Latin American studies, searches a the music, and thus as equally complex tion of listening power. This way of work- neering), in which the music of Celia Cruz, way to deconstruct Adorno’s discourse from sounds. ing is even more evident in Estelas, the ear- Ray Barretto and Rubén Blades serves as a a postcolonial perspective, through mu- liest piece on the disc. Here the problems constant references, sometimes even bor- sic. The clarinet, as a voice that is both lo- But those appropriations, as well as the are mostly vertical, rather than horizontal, dering the melodic quotation, but in the end cal and cosmopolitan in its turns, creates an rejection of those appropriations, are not but the approach is very similar: there is a never forcing the listener to understand opposing discourse to Adorno’s own voice, solely intellectual. The music of Farías is of- certain tension presented to the listener, the piece based on previous experiences presenting the listener with the limits for an ten theatrical, in the best sense: full of turns where objects are never resolved in ways with salsa or those musicians. Quotes here idea of “background” music. In fact, partic- and twists that create a narrative tension, that defy the cultural expectations. The mu- work structurally, not as forced exercises ularly in the second half of the piece when construct from the central elements and sic is traced in blocks, but those blocks are in communication. Again, and considering the radio becomes a more pervasive refer- topics of the piece. This is most evident in not determined by harmony here (as in Pal- that several of these pieces are meant for ence, one could ask if Adorno has not be- those pieces that are more abstract in na- ettes), but rather as resonances from two European ensembles and listeners, there is come the background, the music of Farías – ture, like Palettes or Estelas. In Palettes, tone axis: the notes B and C. a powerful postcolonial stance in the way of which he becomes part –, being the rele- the process of sonic and musical explora- the music is so constructed. vant discourse. tion is very explicit, which might be related Farías, who is as well versed in Latin Amer- to the origins of the piece. It was inspired ican popular music as he is in contempo- The different places from where Farías Farías, in his music, seems always in the by the photographic work of James Well- rary music in the Western tradition, often in- comes from (opera, cumbia, popular mu- search for a position, confronting the listening, and the feeling of confusion it provokes cludes subtle allusions to his background sic, contemporary experimental music, etc.) er too with that position. His usual stance, on the viewer, who cannot discern what is and listening habits, as well as his “locus”, converge in one of the most striking pieces 6 7 in the album: Une Voix Liquide, from 2018. MIGUEL FARÍAS The musical focus of the piece, as it so often happens in his work, is in timbre and the connections between timbre, gesture and line. But the contribution of the percussion section (particularly with the congas) pres- ents a rhythmical spectrum that is followed by other instruments and could easily have turned the work into an exotic Latin Ameri- can reference, which it never does. The last third of the piece, also, sometimes feels like on the verge of becoming popular music, Miguel Farías currently works as a compos- the electric guitar contributing strongly to er and is a PhD candidate in Latin American a certain expectation through timbre, har- Studies. He studied composition in Chile, mony and gesture; but, again, this possibil- Switzerland and France. The winner of sev- ity never fully resolves. Behind such proce- eral international prizes and beneficiary of dures the idea of subalternity looms large, commissions and residences in Chile and only becoming subtly explicit through elec- Europe, He was a finalist in the “Compos- tronic means, voices as ghosts of a narra- er Project” and “Roche Commissions” pro- tive. There is only the suggestion of a sto- grams of the Lucerne Festival, with Pierre ry or of certain emotions, rather than the Boulez as a jury member.

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