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Argilla

Giulio Soldo

53 views

Sextet

2025

Cello

Electric Guitar

Mezzo-soprano

Oboe

Piano

Unpitched Percussion

Program Notes: This is a story about control. It may be funny, it also might make you think, and, perhaps, it could even be slightly political. The instrumentalists are asleep clay puppets, happy to be quiet and, apparently, lifeless. So, when they are not playing, they have to look like they were dead, still and barley breathing. They would prefer not to be manipulated by the M.S., so, when they are, in the beginning they seem to obey without any resistance - still always acting like aseptic robots. Then, and in three different occasions, they will be able to rise up against M.S.’s will, subverting her orders, until they will actually manage to absorb her in their dormant clay matter, transforming their master into clay, and letting the silence to come back again. As already mentioned, the M.S. is a sort of a master, an anthropomorphic giant hand which wants to control, modify and give life to the motionless clay that rests around her. She particularly despises to see her plans failing.
Recording Notes: Organiser: .abeceda Institute - Event: Bled Contemporary Music Week - Workshop: precept.concept.percept XII. Mentors: Urban Megušar (performance), Alastair White (composition) - Recorded at: Bled Festival Hall, Slovenia - Audio by: Iztok Zupan - Video by: Branko Lenarčič, Evita Podobnikar
Performer Credits: MEZZO-SOPRANO: Juana Monsalve OBOE: Ángela Calvos Ríos E. GUITAR: Nuria Lopez García VIOLONCELLO: Vigovajk Sagvik PERCUSSIONS: Alexander Smith PIANO: Nina Prešiček