MUSIC & SCULPTURES
In the summer of 2017 I had the honor of being part of the Varda Artists Residency in California, aboard the SS Vallejo houseboat.
A place with a lot of history that has hosted international artists and writers from all disciplines since 1940 like Jean Varda, Jack Kerouac, Harry Partch, Maya Angelou, Gordon Onslow Ford, Mark Tobey, Robert Matta, Ruth Asawa, Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller…
The challenge at the residency was to develop a multidisciplinary project along with the artist - and sister - Carla Cascales Alimbau, exploring the possibilities of combining Music and Sculpture.
This piano piece was inspired by the vibrant new experience of living on a houseboat; and with the purpose of giving a sonority dimension to the mobile sculptures that Carla was developing.
The first part of this piece represents the tide: the water slowly going up and then down; the swinging of the boat. Then comes the lighthouse: the sudden calm and peace of floating on the water, on a boat, where the rhythm of the day is marked by the light of the sun and the moon.
This acousmatic composition is a kind of collage of the sounds and noises produced while building the mobile sculptures. You can hear how the surrounding nature comes through the windows, how the materials sound while Carla manipulate them and even how a heavy piece suddenly falls to the ground.
Ultimately, this is a little piece to remember how the creative process is as beautiful and important as the 'final result'.
