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Juan Pampin

b. 1967 || Website || YouTube


Juan Pampin is an Argentine composer who currently lives in Seattle and works at the University of Washington. He is founder and current director for Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS). His music draws from space, material, and memory and much of his compositional works use electronics. His music has been performed by notable groups including Sinfonia 21 and Arditti String Quartet.


Metal Hurlant is an piece from his percussion cycle On Space that explores different "metal" sounds. On his website he describes this cycle "On Space closes a cycle of pieces that explore the materiality of percussion sound: "Métal Hurlant" (1996, metal), "Toco Madera" (1997, wood), and "Skin Heads" (1998, skins). On Space uses the sound materials created in all these works to shape space as a continuous matter, capable of inflections and changes." (pampin.org) The instruments used in this piece masterfully create a sense of space and expansion. I have always thought of the concept of space needing strings to describe it, but am pleasantly challenged and excited to have my perception widened.

Metal Hurlant


INTERSTICES is a piece for String Quartet. This particular video is performed by the renowned JACK Quartet, presented by the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. The piece is stunning with its use of extended techniques and quiet dynamics. Pampin's influence of space, material, and memory shines through inexplicably as you watch and listen intently. The first half is pretty quiet, so I suggest watching the video, to catch each entrance of each instrument. For the second half of the piece, each instrument sounds like they have their own independent lines, going in directions that is difficult to follow. However, he almost "wrangles" them back together as they head toward the "quiet" once again. This time, however, it's only an illusion as they "surge" altogether for the ending of the piece.

INTERSTICES


Juan Pampin's use of electronics not only takes us in new directions but also introduces new limits. I know that I have personally enjoyed listening to his compositions and have been challenged to reach deeper, wider, and even "more shallow" to find the right combination of tools to say what it is that I want to say. To follow his career or learn more about his music, click on his Website.

 

For anyone who might need it :

I do not own any of the videos or music in this blog post or any other posts that are on this blog site.

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