Sergio Castrillón

Sergio Castrillón

Photo: Iida-Liina Linnea

Sergio Castrillón a multidisciplinary sonic-based artist/researcher focused on experimentalism and comprovisation. Castrillón joined Godzilla in Seili and performed his piece GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES for solo modified-amplified cello as part of the Herring Day event on August 8.

As a composer his most recent work explores multi-creative processes resulting in open scores and conceptual pieces, involving performers and creators from diverse artistic disciplines. As a performer he has dedicated the last 10 years to develop timbral modifications in his cello, based on physical changes and extreme tunings, which have expanded the pitch range of the instrument and allowed micronotonal manipulations. Castrillón is currently lecturer at the Sibelius Academy – University of the Arts. There he is responsible for an Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Creation around experimental composition, improvisation and comprovisation, as well as for supervising artistic and research projects in Master and Doctoral levels. 

Within my artistic research, the most striking feature is the development of specific playing and compositional techniques, applied into different artistic disciplines and musical genres. Also integrated into several intercultural collaborations.

He feels strongly connected with the Baltic Sea. – “I would say it’s a strong relationship since I work a lot between Nordic and Baltic countries. Also, because I live by the sea in Helsinki.

Castrillón is fascinated by the soundscapes of the Baltic Sea created by the migratory birds and by the waves striking the shores.

Photo: Iida-Liina Linnea

GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES
A Comprovised – Sonic Piece for solo modified-[amplified] cello: A mental Imagery paradigm

Mental Imagery was the main process used to comprovise this performance. In his doctoral thesis, The Influence of Stimulus Induced Mental Imagery on the Process of Improvising Freely, Jaak Sikk argues that the use of mental imagery can raise the quality of improvising freely, because through created imagery, the meaning of improvised music expands for the improviser. His study also suggests engaging only in mental practicing, avoiding any physical contact with the instruments and mediums for some period before the performative act. Inspired by Sikk, I decided to apply Mental Imagery to my Comprovisation. According to composer Sandeep Bhagwati, Comprovisation appears as a practice that allows score-base notated pieces, the inclusion of improvisational elements, generating the coexistence between a contingent moment of performance, and a context-independent system of rules.

However, GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES was not set with a written score; it was developed by memory using instrumental praxis and improvisation as main processes. Namely, my comprovisation approach was simply based on interpolating and merging composition with improvisation and its functions. GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES was structured into a set of 15 titled micro-pieces, in order to make the memorising process more simple. The titles of the pieces came from the memories of Soundscapes collected in my sonic archive, and from the titles, the comprovisational discourse started. The titles of the pieces are: 1) Aire I, 2) Fast means fast, 3) When I was far East, 4) Noise, sweet noise, 5) Barroquiana, 6) Mumbling, 7) Layer cake, 8) I wanna be a one man-Free jazzband, 9) To my serial and post serial friends, 10) Once more between Lapland and the Andes, 11) Tunnel-Maa, 12) Double dobles, 13) Aire II, 14) Canto a lo Divino, and 15) Aire III.

These are the 15 GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES, which feature sonic memories of nature in different parts of the globe, noises, elements of traditional music from the South American Andes, the Finnish Lapland; scales used in classical music from Iraq, India; Free Jazz tunes, Blues tunes, Noises, electronic music, rock music, and metal music, among others. Some of these sonic memories had been part of my musical background. Others had been only remote sonic memories. To later ones I applied the Mental Imagery process.

The improvised part of GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES appears only during the performance as a decision-making process in situ, depending on the space, the context, or a particular conceptual idea that crosses my mind, as well as the mental disposition I have in the exact moment of the performance. On the other hand, I can choose the order of the micro pieces at the moment of the performance, since they were not made to be played in a specific order. In other words, my intention is to make the performance as different as possible from one version to another, and to interact with the space and its acoustic conditions as much as possible by following mental images produced in the moment. Hence, imagery becomes an in situ-performative-score.

GLOBAL SOUNDSCAPES has been performed since its premiere 11 times around the globe, in different locations.