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LP
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BR 178LP
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From the re-reading of Jorge Luis Borges' famous story "The Circular Ruins," Peruvian composer, percussionist, and painter Manongo Mujica approaches some of his great obsessions with a new perspective: the desert of the Peruvian coast and the pre-Hispanic ceremonial centers found there. For years, the impressions of these places have evoked in Mujica a highly personal aesthetic, born from understanding the desert as a space for inner listening, and the ceremonial centers or "huacas" as a representation of mystery. Ritual Sonoro para Ruinas Circulares (Sound Ritual for Circular Ruins) is the synthesis, the dreamlike and sound amalgamation, and perhaps Manongo Mujica's ultimate album on his unique vision of the sound landscape and the desert. Building on a heritage of meditative and ethnic music, avant-garde jazz, and improvisation, here is a strange sound universe, based on the use of various drum and percussion rhythms (udu, djembe, gong, cajón, seeds, Chinese bells, etc.), field recordings and sound montages, dense, reverberating, gloomy, immersive, and hypnotic soundscapes. These gradually give way to a solitary and penetrating cello (performed by Fil Uno). Crescendos introduce electroacoustic processes (created by the Norwegian Terje Evensen), interweaving panpipes and ritualistic voices (performed by Gabriela Ezeta), shaping the atmosphere like that of a magnificent ceremony. The album features the participation of Cristóbal, Daniel and Gabriel Mujica, sons of Manongo. As well as with the participation of Fil Uno, Terje Evensen and Gabriela Ezeta. It was recorded by Juanjo Salazar at the La encía del Leopardo studio. Mastered by Mario Breuer. And with the cover art by Yerko Zlatar, based on photographs by Pauline Barberi. It is published by Buh Records in digital and in a vinyl edition, limited to 300 copies.
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LP
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BR 167LP
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The story of Del Cuarto Rojo (From the Red Room) began in March 2020, when the Peruvian composer and percussionist Manongo Mujica received a call notifying him that the visual artist Rafael Hastings, his friend of almost half a century, had passed away. Since then, and in the midst of the pandemic, Manongo Mujica began a personal journey searching for sounds, which has resulted in a new set of pieces that evoke the memory of a friendship. Del Cuarto Rojo (From the Red Room), subtitled Homenaje sonoro escuchando la pintura de Rafael Hastings (Sound Tribute Listening to Rafael Hastings' Paintings), is Manongo Mujica's new album, and it has also motivated the preparation of a new show by the dancer and choreographer Yvonne von Mollendorff, wife of Hastings. The history of this friendship dates back to 1974, when a young Manongo returned to Lima, after ten years living in London, while young Rafael Hastings and Yvonne von Mollendorff settled in Peru after a long period in Europe. Since then, the collaborations between these artists have been continuous, always marked by an experimental impetus. The attitude of listening to images and painting sounds was more than a metaphor and became a code that identified them and a way of working, where the crossing of disciplines set the tone, both in video works and in unusual visual/conceptual scores, works of dance and experimental music, in the context of a creative effervescence that renewed the arts and music in Lima in the '70s. Del Cuarto Rojo is an album that integrates many of the musical resources developed by Mujica. It is an amalgam that well sums up his own language: from the creation of environments with extended techniques and objects, to experiments in jazz fusion; from the use of field recordings and sound montages to compositions with string arrangements: everything around the hypnotic pulse of percussion and drums, which oscillate between moments of subtlety and explosive improvisation. The album features the participation of outstanding musicians such as Pauchi Sasaki (violin), José Quezada (cello), Terje Evensen (electronic effects), Jean Pierre Magnet (saxophone), Cristobal, Daniel, and Gabriel Mujica (sons of Manongo Mujica, on percussion, string, and wind arrangements). Includes a full color 12-page booklet with a sample of Rafael Hastings's visual art, which also illustrates the album cover.
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