das mollsche gesetz & Leon Berben (harpsichord) & Ivo Bol (electronics) & Luis Negron (video) - tientos y lucientes
The cross-media-based performance Tientos y Lucientes draws its subject and inspiration out of 2 main focal points of spanish cultural history : on one hand the 80-part cycle of etchings Caprichos by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes and on the other hand the Tientos ( = the fingering) of the golden age of spanish keyboard-music, represented here by the protagonists Cabanilles and Cabezon. Early Tientos were quite often fixations and elaborations of improvisations, a fact that approaches them to the usual mode of operation of the improvising-trio das mollsche gesetz . Although originating a 100 years later, Goyas Caprichos share with most of the Tientos a certain disposedness towards small form, anecdotic character and a kind of ambiguity in regards of content.
Tientos y Lucientes creates a staged frame, within which improvised as well as composed convergencies of sound and picture complement each other in a fruitful way. Some of the old-iberian harpsichord tunes are played in their original version, others are re-composed, arranged and, by means of this specific combination of acoustic instruments with live-sampling and live-electronics, transported into a contemporary context. Additionally, Luis Negron will transform the enigmatic aura of Goya ́s etchings, through a machinery (an analog-digital version of the Laterna Magica) developed by himself, into a state of metamorphotic timeliness.
The staging of the elements sound, silence, imagery and space opens up a very concise contextual framework and a clear scope for connotation, while at the same time, thanks to its permeability, granting to the artists an abundand amount of freedom in the definition of details.
In the end an ample reflexion about the new within the old, the volatility of the authentic and the sleep of reason.