Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Escrito en la arena (2020)
The confluence of sound textures and the use of loops in the classic way of musique concrète are found in this acousmatic piece by Marcelo Espíndola. Espíndola, who is a percussionist and moves between contemporary music and funk, displays high clarity percussion sounds and spaces of various kinds through maintained materials (according to Schaeffer’s terminology). Timbre, its variations and its positioning in space through reverberation and location in the stereo panorama, enrich the sonic whole. Synthesis and sampling come together in a mixture of detailed sound craft that forms a journey that transits between the contemplative and an organic or a mechanical drive, all according to the type of repetitions and exposed materials. --Alejandro Albornoz
Art: Navajo Ceremonial Sandpainting
Escrito en la arena (2020)
The confluence of sound textures and the use of loops in the classic way of musique concrète are found in this acousmatic piece by Marcelo Espíndola. Espíndola, who is a percussionist and moves between contemporary music and funk, displays high clarity percussion sounds and spaces of various kinds through maintained materials (according to Schaeffer’s terminology). Timbre, its variations and its positioning in space through reverberation and location in the stereo panorama, enrich the sonic whole. Synthesis and sampling come together in a mixture of detailed sound craft that forms a journey that transits between the contemplative and an organic or a mechanical drive, all according to the type of repetitions and exposed materials. --Alejandro Albornoz
Art: Navajo Ceremonial Sandpainting







![Vivian Fine - Alcestis
Alcestis (1960)
I. Alcestis and Thanatos
II. Revelling Hercules
III. Battle of Hercules and Thanatos
IV. Dance of Triumph and the Rescue of Alcestis
Imperial Philharmonic of Tokyo
William Strickland
The working procedure was much different than it had been in Fine’s previous experience with choreographers. Heretofore the choreography preceded the music. With Alcestis, Fine wrote the music from a dramatic script written by Martha Graham. As stated on the score, Fine’s intention was “an attempt to depict the dramatic and emotional qualities of the myth…[that] avoids descriptive or representational writing.” As a musical work, the score is self-sufficient. Fine distilled the essence of the myth into a sonic drama expressed by contrapuntal lines enhanced by imaginative orchestration and flexible rhythms to complete the composer’s realization of Alcestis. Later she extracted sections of the ballet score to create an independent composition, an orchestral suite.
The following synopsis of the ballet’s mythological story is taken from CRI’s original LP release: “Alcestis has sacrificed herself to Thanatos (Death) in order that her husband, Admetus, king of Thessaly, might attain immortality. While the house of Admetus mourns her demise, Hercules arrives. While the news of Alcestis’ death has been kept from him...Hercules indulges in a heroic, might we say Herculean, bout of feasting and drinking. When he learns, by the careless words of a servant, of her death, he engages mighty Thanatos in combat. Victorious, her returns Alcestis to her husband and her people.” Heidi Von Gunden
Art by Maurice Denis Vivian Fine - Alcestis](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aLcspXrXfMs/mqdefault.jpg)
![Klaus Wiese - Uranus
Uranus (1988)
1. Tâ Há I
2. Tâ Há II [29:52]
In the late 1980s, Klaus Wiese (Popol Vuh) deepened his connection with Tibetan culture. The result is a series of works solely dedicated to the universal purity of the Singing Bowls. Uranus, perhaps the most rigorous of these, is an intense meditation on the trans-personal sphere of the VI chackra. The music becomes like a single harmonic chant, the reflection of a constant flow of divine light, which transforms the psyche and dilates the secret passages of the heart. In the galaxy of pure sound, the accumulated overtones offer the intrepid listener the access to a prismatic, fluoriscence-rich consciousness. The ego thus becomes the sonorous composer of itself, of the vital circle flooded with beneficial acoustic vibrations. In this sense, Uranus, originally published on tape (Aquamarin Verlag/1988), also marks a parallel with the same research by Henry Wolff & Nancy Hennings or Nada Himalayas Deuter. CD edition co-released with Aquamarin Verlag. [Black Sweat Records]
Art by Stefan Blaser Klaus Wiese - Uranus](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aTzVo0p4HG4/mqdefault.jpg)

![James MacMillan - Cantos Sagrados
Cantos Sagrados (Sacred Songs), for choir and organ (1989)
I. Identity
II. Virgin of Guadalupe [8:40]
III. Sun Stone [16:16]
Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, organ
Polyphony
James MacMillan
One of MacMillan’s most powerful works, Cantos Sagrados sets poems by Ariel Dorfman and Ana María Mendoza on the subject of political repression in Latin America combines with traditional religious texts in Latin. The choral writing ranges from agitated speech-like violence to rapt meditation, and the organ part is a showcase for a talented soloist. The composer created an alternative orchestral version in 1997 making the work equally accessible to symphonic choruses.
As MacMillan states in his preface to the score ‘the title Sacred Songs is … slightly misleading as the three poems are concerned with political repression in Latin America and are deliberately coupled with traditional religious texts to emphasise a deeper solidarity with the poor of that subcontinent’.
This is a powerfully effective work that is not very difficult for the singers (the organ part is quite virtuosic and needs an accomplished player) although there are, as usual, points in the work that present some challenges. The second movement is unaccompanied for a substantial part of the first section that could lead to pitch problems when the organ/orchestra eventually joins. The third movement (in which a political prisoner is shot and his executioner begs him for forgiveness) uses MacMillan’s effective chorale-like vocal parts (with Latin words) which are interspersed by increasingly neurotic interventions from sopranos and then other voices which build to a huge climax as the shots are fired, gradually subsiding to a whispered ‘forgive me compañero’ at the end. Paul Spicer
Art by Diana Dowek James MacMillan - Cantos Sagrados](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/b-96ijD4IpM/mqdefault.jpg)