<time. no time>, for solo female voice, 8 amplified monochords, electronics and video (2022) 46'

This artistic project is about time and its perception in our contemporary society and in music. Musically, the different temporal levels (past, present and future) are processed, interconnected and superimposed on top of each other. The idea of uniting past and future in the present is also implemented on the visual level of the composition. The musical and audiovisual material is subjected to different temporal processes: acceleration and deceleration, being played in reverse or presenting intermittent jumps between past and future.
Rome, as one of the great cultural cities and European metropolises, is a multi-temporal city that unites the past and the future with its historical monuments, but also with modern architecture in a unique way.

Monochords are instruments designed and built by the composer himself. Each of them includes 25 strings tuned to twelfths of a tone at different pitches. They are also amplified by contact microphones inserted inside; This amplification is in turn transformed through various digital effects. Monochords are manipulated by musicians in various ways through the use of different instrumental techniques and accessories such as e-bows (electromagnetic bows), bicycle tire rubber, steel bars, etc.

The 8 monochordists stand at the outer edge of the room forming a circle around the audience. The soprano soloist is placed in the center within a semi-transparent cylindrical cell where the video is also projected.

This project was composed during my residence at the Spanish Academy in Rome. Different temporal levels meet in Rome and merge into a whole. On the other hand, Rome was one of the most important musical centers of the Renaissance and Baroque, given the important role of the city throughout the centuries. In Rome, I explored and collected ideas around this aspect of the city between past, present and future, and incorporate them into the work, both with sound elements and musical references and in the visual staging. Much of this material is phonographic material from different periods (with different degrees of erosion) belonging to the archive of the Istituto centrale per i beni sonori ed audiovisivi. Rome emerges in this project as the necessary narrative space that provides the dramatic context to the work and, at the same time, stands as the protagonist through its inhabitants and their sound memory.