Entirely recorded in Cuba, ‘Apagon’ (‘Blackout’) was born of power outages and delivered by a hurricane. Pianist Marco Trevisani and electroacoustic composer Michael Edwards created the album at the invitation of the Laboratorio Nacional de Musica Electroacustica (National Laboratory of Electroacoustic Music) in Havana. On good days, electricity is frequently interrupted in Cuba. It was non-existent as Hurricane Georges bore down on Cuba with 100 mile-per-hour winds toward the end of the recording process. Trevisani, a calm native of Verona, Italy, and a Cubaphile, shared the natives humorous disdain of the frequent technical failures and approaching Act of God. Edwards, originally from Manchester, England, and in Cuba for the first time, feared for their equipment and lives, but otherwise enjoyed alternating bouts of aggravation and panic. The artists, it may be suggested, complement each other well.
A large part of the attraction of working in Cuba was the opportunity to work with percussionist Diego Ruiz, better known as Habichuela. Habichuela is a great musician and thorough professional. He easily assimilates new ideas while contributing his own rare talent, highly-flexible technique, and sabor Cubano into the multifarious ascendancies of the compositions. Habichuela is ever-present and always bang-on. The music on this album is hard to classify. Its not classical music. Nor is it computer music, jazz, electronica, Cuban, World (if such a thing exists), ethnic or anything else that might be stuffed into a category. ‘Apagon’ is all of these things and more. ‘Apagon’ is music that neither one of the composers could have made alone: it is a true collaboration.
Credits:
Marco Trevisani: Prepared Piano – Michael Edwards: Computer Sound Manipulation – Diego ‘Habichuela’ Ruiz: Cuban Percussion
Recorded at Laboratorio Nacional de Musica Electroacustica, La Habana, Cuba – Recording sessions engineered by Dario Nunez
TRACK LIST:
1. ENIRAK (2:28)
prepared piano, congas, computer
2. MACONDO (6:00)
prepared piano, congas, live computer processing
3. O CORE DUMPED (5:20)
prepared piano, congas, computer
4. SEGMENTATION FAULT BETA 1.1 (12:12)
prepared piano, computer
5. MELU(4:03)
congas, computer
6. BUS ERROR (7:46)
prepared piano, congas, computer, live computer processing
7. EINALEM(8:09)
prepared piano, computer
8. TAMU E MAMEY(4:56)
prepared piano, congas, bongos, computer
9. DEAD MUTE AND DUMPLINGS (3:34)
prepared piano, congas, computer, live computer processing
10. AYANO (7:28)
prepared piano, congas, claves, street sounds
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