SOSPESO

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Immobility and Contemplation

Work: Sospeso
Composer: Juan Arroyo
Instruments: 2 microtonal accordions
Duration: 8 minutes
World premiere: 2019 by the duo XAMP (Fanny Vicens and Jean-Etienne Sotty) at the Perspectives XXI Festival, Perpignan, France
Commission: Ensemble Regards with the support of SACEM

Rome is, for many people, a spectacular city with beautiful views and a fascinating history. In 2017, I had the chance to be selected for an artistic residency at the prestigious Villa Médicis. This beautiful residence, where Berlioz, Debussy, and Bizet once lived, among others, was a place of inspiration and hard work during my stay. However, the Roman winter, social obligations, and the weariness of a nomadic life began to influence my musical work. The need to suspend time and contemplate its stillness became crucial. During this period, I began composing a work commissioned by the Ensemble Regards and dedicated to the duo XAMP. Like in painting, I represented various landscapes in which the matter, almost immobile, would lead the listener to a contemplative state. The opportunity to unfold a fabric of microtonal chords allowed me to create a harmonic trajectory of microscopic progressions. Finally, in a kabbalistic manner, I sent the score to Fanny Vicens and Jean-Etienne Sotty (duo XAMP) on December 31, 2017, at midnight.Sospeso was premiered at the Festival Prospective XXI in Perpignan in 2019 and invites the listener to a sonic meditation on immobility and contemplation, through subtle microtonal chords and meticulous harmonic progression.

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Author: Juan Arroyo

Composer in residence at the Center Henri Pousseur (2014), IRCAM (2015), Cité Internationale des Arts (2015), Member of the Academy of France in Madrid – Casa de Velazquez (2016), at the Art Zoyd Music Creation Center (2017), member of the Académie de France in Rome – Villa Médicis (2017), Juan Arroyo is actually the guest composer of the National Orchestra of Peru, co-artistic director and conductor of the Regards ensemble, co-artistic director of the Sonomundo Festival, curator of the Experimenta festival at the Great National Theater of Peru, professor at the d’Argenteuil conservatory and member of the Artistic Council of the Casa de Velasquez. Juan Arroyo was born in Lima, Peru. He studied composition at the Conservatories of Lima, Bordeaux and at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris. He deepens his musical knowledge in formations like Voix Nouvelles and the IRCAM. He has been guided by eminent composers such as Allain Gaussin, Brian Ferneyhough, Heinz Holliger, Henri Pousseur, Jean-Yves Bosseur, Luis Naón, Mauricio Kagel, Michael Levinas, and Stefano Gervasoni. His music is rewarded with numerous awards such as the prize of the Salabert Foundation (2013), the prize of the Academy of Fine Arts of France (2015) and the Ibermusicas composition award (2022). He receives prestigious commissions from the French Ministry of Culture, Radio France, Centre Henri Pousseur, SACEM and Donaueschinguen Musiktage. His works are performed by eminent musicians such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, L’Itinéraire, Linea, LAPS, L’Arsenale, Proxima Centauri, Sonido Extremo, National Orchestra of Peru, Vertixe Sonora and Tana Quartet. His music is performed at great festivals such as Ars Musica, Présences, Cervantino, La Chaise-Dieu, Ensems and ¡Viva Villa! His compositional work revolves around sound hybridization. Indeed, in 2014, he began a fundamental stage of his artistic work with the construction of new instruments capable of transmuting their sound, the TanaInstruments. This allowed him to hybridize the perceptual cues of sounds in order to reveal the evocative and irrational nature of their substance, sometimes making them enigmatic.

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