Asymmetry Music Magazine » Beatriz Ferreyra

Chrysopée Electronique-Bourges

michaelkarman — Wed, 16 May 2007 00:27:45 +0000

Ferreyra is that rare composer whose output can be genuinely described as protean. This can be most convincingly heard on the Chrysopée Electronique-Bourges cd, also called “the green album.” Two pieces are from the seventies (1972 and 74); three are from the eighties (1985, 86, and 87), and they couldn’t be more different from each other.
Souffle d’un petit Dieu distrait opens with some microtonal weaving, which broadens out into a very quick oscillation, over which a variety of gestures begin to orbit. That gradually changes into descending figures, which are replaced (smoothly and gradually) by spacious dark swoops of sounds. Not until almost halfway through are there silences separating the sounds—a change that’s quite startling, even though the sounds are the same as we’ve been hearing for the past five minutes. It’s a simple effect that’s simply effective: you cannot help but start to listen more closely to each event when they’re separated by silences. Even after the music goes back to a continuous flow, you still feel very much on the qui vive, so that the last few minutes, which reverse the opening minutes of the piece, sound much more dramatic and engaging, even though the music is getting quieter and simpler. The very ending is simply perfect. (...)
Read the rest of Chrysopée Electronique-Bourges (319 words)

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Le chemin du vent des glaces

michaelkarman — Wed, 16 May 2007 00:27:16 +0000

Written for a four cd collection of pieces inspired by the seasons (Les Saisons–LCD 2781126-27-28-29), Le chemin du vent des glaces is one of two pieces by Ferreyra on this set, Siesta Blanca being the other. Le chemin du vent des glaces covers a lot of ground in its only eleven minutes of rich and varied sound, so much so that I’m always taken aback when it ends so soon.

From its dramatic opening, great explosive sounds in the distance with short fragments of hiss in the foreground, to the various overlapping wind sounds mixed with all sorts of clicks and clatters and rumbling, and some of the sounds from the opening, to the shocking sound of a cork pulled out of a bottle and a drink being poured—over ice, of course—which introduces a section of people talking and laughing, and then back to the austere beauties that characterize the bulk of this piece, it’s a thrilling excursion, one you’ll want to take over and over again.

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Demeures aquatiques

michaelkarman — Wed, 16 May 2007 00:26:47 +0000

The date for Demeures aquatiques which makes it early (earliest?) in Ferreyra’s career. It does not promise great things to come, as many composers early pieces do. It is simply a great thing that’s already here. The shifting from channel to channel, so easy to be gimmicky, is so adroit and so musical in this piece, that that one thing is almost worth the price of admission all on its own. But it’s not about technique that I want to talk, though that’s certainly impressive enough, but of the music. The piece moves slowly and gorgeously and naturally, the sounds and the motives unfolding out of each other so organically that listening to this piece move through time is like experiencing a cycle of growth and decay out in nature somewhere. In only seven minutes, this piece creates an incredible sense of spaciousness. Unbelieveable.

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Le Riviere des Oiseaux

michaelkarman — Wed, 16 May 2007 00:25:03 +0000

La Riviere des Oiseaux is the album name and the name of the first three pieces, Rio de los Pajaros, Rio de los Pajoros Escondidos, and Rio de los Pajaros Azules. Rio de los Pajaros builds from a single “call,” repeated several times at the beginning and recurring throughout in many guises, into a piece as complex and interesting and various as one could wish for. Rio de los Pajoros Escondidos opens with a great rush of sound and is altogether darker and more spacious sounding than its predecessor, at least for the first three minutes. At that point little licks from Rio de los Pajaros enter in and you realize that La Riviere des Oiseaux isn’t just some fanciful title for a collection of related pieces but a designation of a three part piece, tightly and intricately integrated. Each part distinct; each part part of a whole, as Rio de los Pajaros Azules announces in its opening, which combines the dramatic opening of Rio de los Pajoros Escondidos with music you know already from the first two pieces. If it weren’t for the palpable beauties of those two, I’d say that Rio de los Pajaros Azules is the most varied and interesting of the three. Best to just say that La Riviere des Oiseaux is a most satisfying piece of music and leave it at that! (...)
Read the rest of Le Riviere des Oiseaux (241 words)

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