NOEMATA For Electric Guitar, Saxophone, Percussion and Piano

Performed by: Ensemble Nikel
Yaron Deutsch – Electric Guitar
Vincent Daoud – Saxophone
Tom De Cock – Percussion
Reto Staub – Piano

Disrupt, crack, break, interrupt, shapeless, timeless, corrupted, decadent, unbalance, confusing, disorderly, distracting, disturbing, obstreperous, problematize, troublesome, unruly, unsettling, upsetting. The list can go on forever. Recently, all of these terms are quite common in two contexts that are very familiar to me as a composer and as person. The first context is when talking and thinking about contemporary art and music. Standard vocabulary in an academic setting. Nonetheless, these terms started to appear in many of my day to day conversations in contemporary Mexico, where I’m a native and where all my family and many friends live.

The presence of Drug Cartels along with the constant threat to be black mailed or kidnapped along with the sense that nobody can realistically protect you or your family is quite unsettling and invariably creates anxiety. Like in a prehistoric jungle, the only possible thing to do is to hope that you or someone you love is not the next victim. Nothing more. These hopelessness brought the same vocabulary that was exclusive for my work as a composer and started to bother me quite a lot.

Therefore, I decided to eliminate these terms from my compositional process and instead, depart from ideas of reconciliation, continuity, shape, flow, stability, enjoyment. Simply create a place to shout my frustration of not being able to do anything about the situation and to be far away from people that I love. Right now, I really don’t feel like breaking anything, I feel like “repairing things” even though it comes from a broken-anxious and violent impulse. Noemata is the fourth of a series of pieces that take this approach to share at least in thought solidarity with my dear friends and family.

Disrupt, crack, break, interrupt, shapeless, timeless, corrupted, decadent, unbalance, confusing, disorderly, distracting, disturbing, obstreperous, problematize, troublesome, unruly, unsettling, upsetting. The list can go on forever. Recently, all of these terms are quite common in two contexts that are very familiar to me as a composer and as person. The first context is when talking and thinking about contemporary art and music. Standard vocabulary in an academic setting. Nonetheless, these terms started to appear in many of my day to day conversations in contemporary Mexico, where I’m a native and where all my family and many friends live.

The presence of Drug Cartels along with the constant threat to be black mailed or kidnapped along with the sense that nobody can realistically protect you or your family is quite unsettling and invariably creates anxiety. Like in a prehistoric jungle, the only possible thing to do is to hope that you or someone you love is not the next victim. Nothing more. These hopelessness brought the same vocabulary that was exclusive for my work as a composer and started to bother me quite a lot.

Therefore, I decided to eliminate these terms from my compositional process and instead, depart from ideas of reconciliation, continuity, shape, flow, stability, enjoyment. Simply create a place to shout my frustration of not being able to do anything about the situation and to be far away from people that I love. Right now, I really don’t feel like breaking anything, I feel like “repairing things” even though it comes from a broken-anxious and violent impulse. Noemata is the fourth of a series of pieces that take this approach to share at least in thought solidarity with my dear friends and family.