Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection

Javier Alvarez, Los Archivos de Panamá, 1985
(Mexico)



Recording time: 3 min 43 s.
Instruments: Electroacoustic sounds

Other resources available:
- About Javier Alvarez
- Compositions by Javier Alvarez

About this composition:

The Panama Files, an electro-acoustic fanfare for tape, was composed in collaborative with Ian Dearden. The piece, which is 4 minutes long, was originally conceived as the soundtrack for an experimental video shot in the equatorial jungle of Panama.

In brief, the work explores rhythms found in the African-influenced music of Panama (the "tamborito" style...) using as sound sources a log drum, a "shekere" ( a gourd covered with a net of beads), crystal glasses ( hit and rubbed) and sounds obtained by clicking fingers. These "concrete" sources were then processed and transformed using both analogue techniques in the studio and digitally using a Fairlight CMI computer. The work was composed and mixed at the City University in London in the latter part of 1985.


First performance : Points of Contact, Purcell Room, SouthBank Centre, London 1988.

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