Jorge García del Valle Méndez

Dead Bichitos – NoiseFloor 2024

Dead Bichitos at NoiseFloor 2024 Festival in Lisbon.

NoiseFloor began at Staffordshire University in 2010, aiming to showcase research and original works by international electronic music composers and performers. Initially, NoiseFloor focused on exploring the dialogue between popular and experimental music.

This year, the NoiseFloor festival will collaborate with the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa and take place in Lisbon, Portugal. This prestigious university will host the event, providing the necessary facilities and systems.

I am excited to announce that my composition, “Dead Bichitos,” will be performed at this festival during the Composers Week Concert on May 28, 2024, at 20:30.

The inspiration behind “Dead Bichitos” may seem grim, but it reflects my subjective impressions of our times. Humanity is slowly immersing itself in the stagnant waters of its own complacency. Unable to see beyond its narrow horizon, it continues to believe itself the center of creation, attempting to solve problems with the same flawed ideas that created them. Futile.

We are merely “Dead Bichitos,” our once golden future fading into obscurity, shrouded by the fog of our evident lethargy. Dead Bichitos.

The ease of habitual mechanization is preferred over resisting the current that leads us toward a gray future, where we will vanish like… Dead Bichitos.

“Dead Bichitos” symbolizes the inertia of our ideas, passively drifting towards a future we dislike but are unwilling to change, for fear of losing the security it brings.

The composition, apart from two unique samples, is entirely synthesized. Granular synthesis plays a significant role in processing this material, along with spatialization techniques that create distinct soundscapes. These soundscapes form a melody of rooms, enhancing the immersive experience.

Dead Bichitos has been performed at the SICMF and DICMF in South Korea, at the ZKM in Karlsruhe and at the 23. Weimarer Frühjahrstage 2022 in Germany. At the latter it received the second prize and the audience award. The work has also been released on CD by DEGEM.

PROGRAM

Adam Stanovic – To US.S..S…
Jorge García del Valle Méndez – Dead Bichitos

road, river and rail – DICMF 2023

“road, river and rail” for violin, viola, violoncello, clarinet, piano and electronic (fixed media, 7.1) will be performed on November 11^th, 2023, at the Daegu International Computer Music Festival in Daegu, South Korea, which will take place at the Suchang Hall of the Daegu Art Factory. This festival is organized annually by the Multimedia Arts Troupe ARS.

This work was originally written for the counter)induction ensemble based in New York, which premiered it in Washington DC (USA) on 12.06.2010 as part of the 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD) held at George Washington University. Originally the electronics of the work was conceived in a 7.1 configuration but this time, at the DICMF it will be performed in a 4-channel configuration.

road, river and rail is not only a musical composition in the usual sense. It is also a sort of multi-interaction on different levels between real and virtual life. These interaction-levels comprise, not only a performance-interaction, but also an interactive creation by the composition as well as by the interpretation.

The concepts of reality and virtuality are here applied to the two sides of the composition: the acoustic and the electronic one.

The source of the work, which comes from the reality (bell sounds of Korean Buddhist temples), will be analyzed through a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) in order to provide the structural materials as well as the form organization of the composition.

The structural materials (the frequencies of the sound’s partials) steer the control of the recorded sounds of the instruments and so will be formed the electronic, the virtual part of the composition. The instruments interact with the raw materials and with the electronic in a structural level.

Both parts of the work (the real one and the virtual one) will be processed with various systems whose handlings also interact in reciprocal form.

The final product of the processes will be the digital audio-tracks (virtual) and the score (real). By the performance, the electronic will interact with the musicians (score), modifying the interpretation of the work in a controlled manner.

The audience will be the observer of the last step on a chain of interaction processes, a sort of feedback without the perception of the dry signal. They will be confronted at the same time with the virtual part of the work (electronic) as well as the real one (score-musicians). The listener will also go through a sort of live-interaction, which will be processed as a perception in a subjective way.

The last step of the interaction-chain will be also controlled through the spatialization of the electronic: the audience and the musicians will perceive the electronic in a dynamic movement through the room, which will also influence the subjective recognition of the audio data and so the final impression (audience) and the interpretation (musicians).

The DICMF (Daegu International Computer Music Festival) is an annual event organized by the Multimedia Arts Troupe ARS in Daegu. This year is the seventh edition. It has gained a reputation as one of the most prestigious festivals for electroacoustic music and multimedia art. With its excellent technical resources and specialized performers, the festival showcases contemporary music and multimedia performances. Each year, internationally renowned composers, sound artists, and organizations participate in this event, contributing to its international recognition.

PROGRAM

Bumki Kim – Spacewalk

Jun Hyunsuk – Toccata

Yemin Oh – Ironic Sounds

Panayiotis Kokoras – AI Phantasy

Byung-moo Lee – Dry Glut

Jorge García del Valle Méndez – road, river and rail

Ten Steps (십리) – DICMF 2022

“Ten Steps” (십리-아리랑 변주곡) for piano and electronic (2-Channels) will be performed again on November 12^th, 2022, this time at the Daegu International Computer Music Festival in Daegu, South Korea, which will take place at the Chamber Hall of the Daegu Concert House. This festival is organized annually by the Ensemble Multimedia Art Company ARS.

Eun Young Son (Seoul, South Korea) will perform my work the next November 12^th, 2022 (6:00 PM) in the 4^th concert of the festival at the Chamber Hall in Daegu Concert House (Daegu, South Korea). Eun Young graduated (KA, KE) from the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden (Germany). She has won several international awards like the American Protege (1st) or the IBLA Grand Prize (3rd). Her career has taken an international course with performances at international venues like the Carnegie Hall (New York), the Smetana Hall (Czech Republic) or the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). She is also the author of the book “Music Education for Early Childhood”. Nowadays she is lecturer at the Chongshin University in Seoul (South Korea).

Ten Steps (십리) is based on the Korean song “Arirang”. The name “variation” refers more to a free interpretation of the sensations inspired by the song than to the classical concept of this word. The theme of the song flows unnoticed through the work. The piano is a solitary walker in an environment that, rather than interacting, directs and controls it. “After ten steps…” the piano and electronics dissolve, consolidating into a single element. Together they will travel the long road that leads to the end of the piece.

The sound structure of this work is based on the tonal material of the song Arirang. The material for the electronic part comes from various sources: sounds extracted from traditional Korean music, piano sounds, purely synthetic sounds…

The sound material has been worked through several transformations, being finally compiled into a fluid sound piece. The panorama plays an essential role in the design of the work. Space is an element that is composed to the same extent as sound tone or rhythm. No movement occurs without the perception of the surrounding space. Ten steps are ten spaces.

The DICMF (Daegu International Computer Music Festival), in its sixth edition this year, is annually organized by the Multimedia Art Company ARS in Daegu. In these six years the festival has established itself as one of the most prestigious events dedicated to the promotion and diffusion of electroacoustic music and multimedia art, achieving international renown. The DICMF has excellent technical means and performers specialized in contemporary music and multimedia performance. Internationally renowned composers, sound artists and entities take part annually in this festival.

PROGRAM

Hyunsuk Jun – The Typewriter

Zofia Dowgiałło – Tempus imperfectum

YongGyu Gregory Kim – Aria

Jongwoo Yim – Shade II

Jorge García del Valle Méndez – Ten Steps (십리)

Byung-moo Lee – Microgrid

Scott Wilson – Emberx

Dead Bichitos – 23. Weimarer Frühjahrstage 2022

Next Friday, May 27, 2022, my work “Dead Bichitos” will be performed at the acousmatic music concert that will take place at the cultural center Mon Ami in Weimar (Germany).

This is the concert of the winning works of the International Acousmatic Music Competition organized by via nova e.V. as part of this 23rd Weimarer Frühjahrstage. It is a pleasure to be one of them!

The jury consisting of Helmut Zapf, Paul Hauptmeier, Johannes K. Hildebrandt and Ralf Hoyer selected the works of the composers Youngjae Cho (South Korea), Andrés Quezada (Chile) and Jorge García del Valle Méndez (Spain) from numerous submissions received from Germany and abroad. These will be presented alongside other works in the concert.

Do not hesitate to come if you are in Weimar. It would be a pleasure to meet you there.

PROGRAM

Youngjae Cho – Bumps on a stucco wall
Andrés Quezada – Asimetría
Jorge García del Valle Méndez – Dead Bichitos

as well as works by Paul Hauptmeier and Martin Recker, Ludger Kisters and Ralf Hoyer.

via nova e.V.

Dead Bichitos – DEGEM 30 / ZKM Karlsruhe

On Friday 29.10.2021 will take place at the ZKM in Karlsruhe the presentation of the CD commemorating the 30th anniversary of DEGEM (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Elektroakustische Musik). The presentation concert will be held in the “Cube” hall of the ZKM (Zentrum für Kunst und Media) in the city of Karlsruhe in Germany.

In this CD, as well as in the concert of its presentation, will be included my work “Dead Bichitos” (fixed media, 2 channels).

PROGRAM

Kirsten Reese – Future Unedited

Verena Hentschel – Escalation

Florian Hartlieb – a’larme

Jorge García del Valle Méndez – Dead Bichitos

Ulf Pleines – Leverage Threshold

Javier Garavaglia – Miniaturstueck I

Elisabeth Schimana – Sternenstaub / Explosionen

Maria Pelekanou – Nach der Stille

Antje Vowinckel – Gipfeltreffen

Robin Minard – Qikiqtaaluk for Wilson

Ludger Brümmer – Le tombeau de Maurice

Dead Bichitos – SICMF 2021

My work “Dead Bichitos” for electronic (Acousmatic, 2-Channels, Fixed Media) will be premiered on October 17th at the Seoul International Music Festival SICMF 2021 which this year takes place at PLATFORM-L Contemporary Art Center in Seoul in Seoul, South Korea. The KEAMS (Korea Electro-Acoustic Music Society) organizes this festival yearly.

The composition of this work has taken place after a long in-depth introspection process. It is based on the concepts of change and future in an immersive form that visualizes our internal human processes in a subjective way.

Humanity is slowly submerging itself in the stinking broth of its own idleness. Unable to see beyond its flat horizon, it continues to believe itself to be the center of creation. However, we are nothing more than Dead Bichitos.

Our future, which we once dreamed golden, slowly disappears, obscured by the fog of our evident languor. Dead Bichitos.

The mechanization of habit is more comfortable than opposing the current that flows towards a gray future in which we will disappear like … Dead Bichitos.

Dead Bichitos represents the indolence of our ideas that are left to flow mechanically towards a repulsive future.

The work is composed, with the exception of two single samples, using synthetic material. In the processing of this material, granular synthesis plays a major role, as well as spatialization, which is not only limited to spatial movement, but also to the creation of distinct sound spaces. These spaces compose a melody of rooms.

PROGRAM

Mara Helmuth – Opening Spaces

Erik Deerly – Amorph

남상봉 Sangbong Nam – IAIAI

Jorge García del Valle Méndez – Dead Bichitos

Kyle Shaw – Tamboo

오세린 Serin Oh – Fifuration

Nicola Fumo Frattegiani – Polvere nera

Charles S. Nichols – Time Garden: dawn replica

강중훈 Joonghoon Kang – I Want My Ears Feel Sweet

Mara Helmuth – Onsen: Hot Springs for vibraphone and stereo fixed audio

Ten Steps (십리) – SICMF 2020

My work “Ten Steps” (십리-아리랑 변주곡) for piano and electronic (2-Channels) will be premiered on October 30th at the Seoul International Music Festival SICMF 2020 in Seoul, South Korea. The KEAMS (Korea Electro-Acoustic Music Society) organizes this festival yearly.

Eun Young Son

Eun Young Son will perform my work the next October 30th, 2020 (7:30 PM) in the 3rd concert of the festival at the Jayu Theater in Seoul Arts Center (Seoul, South Korea). Eun Young graduated (KA, KE) from the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden (Germany). She has won several international awards like the American Protege (1st) or the IBLA Grand Prize (3rd). Her career has taken an international course with performances at international venues like the Carnegie Hall (New York), the Smetana Hall (Czech Republic) or the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). She is also the author of the book “Music Education for Early Childhood”. Nowadays she is lecturer at the Chongshin University in Seoul (South Korea).

Ten Steps (십리) is a work inspired by the Korean song “Arirang”. The name “variation” refers more to a free interpretation of the sensations that the song inspires than to the classic concept that this word evokes. The piano is a solitary walker in an environment that, more than interacting, directs and controls him. “after ten steps…” the piano and electronics dissolve into a single element. Together, they still have a long way to go. The sound structure of this work is based on the tonal material of the song Arirang. The material for the electronic part comes from various sources: sounds extracted from traditional Korean music, piano sounds, purely synthetic sounds…

The material has been worked through various transformations and at the end compiled in a fluid sound. The panorama plays an essential role in the design of the work. The space is an element that is composed in the same degree as the sound pitch or the rhythm. No movement takes place without the perception of the space around it. Ten steps are ten spaces.

The Seoul International Computer Music Festival (SICMF) is one of the biggest electro-acoustic music festivals in Asia, and also internationally well-known. Many kinds of ongoing research activities including electro-acoustic music, new electronic instruments and multimedia-based works have been presented annually since 1994. We have invited special composers or performers for the festival such as, Meta Duo, GRAME, INA-GRM, CCRMA, Ensemble Aventure, DEGEM.

PROGRAM

Liona Kuo – Untitled: Sigh

Shu-Huang Chen – Sonic Youth

Clovis McEvoy – Pillars of Introspection

Sungah Shin – Looping Movements

Douglas Hedwig – TranSonic Awakenings in D

Michele Cheng – Doyennes’ Diaries

Marko Ciciliani – Gunned Down (with spoiler)

Jorge García del Valle Méndez – Ten Steps (십리)

Jihyun Kim – Differences

Visions of the Void II – SICMF 2017

“Visions of the Void II” for piano and electronic (fixed media, two channels) will be performed again, this time at the Seoul International Computer Music Festival SICMF 2017 in South Korea.

The KEAMS (Korea Electro-Acoustic Music Society) organizes this festival yearly. The edition of this year will take place in the Asia Culture Center (ACC), an international arts and cultural exchange organization located in the city of Gwangju, the sixth largest city of South Korea situated in the south of the country. It will be a 6 day festival in this awesome place in Gwangju.

Eun Young Son will perform my work the next October 26th, 2017 (7:30 PM) in the 7th concert of the festival at the Theater 2, ACC Theater. Eun Young graduated (KA, KE) from the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden (Germany). She has won several international awards like the American Protege (1st) or the IBLA Grand Prize (3rd). Her career has taken an international course with performances at international venues like the Carnegie Hall (New York), the Smetana Hall (Czech Republic) or the Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). She is also the author of the book “Music Education for Early Childhood”. Nowadays she is lecturer at the Chongshin University in Seoul (South Korea).

Hope to meet you there!

PROGRAM

김태희 – The Creation
Nicolas Rodriguez – El viento será
Carlos Guedes – 1985.2
Jorge García del Valle Méndez – Visions of the Void II

Diego Capoccitti – Recondito
Marc Evans – Barlicity
Damian Gorandi – Albures, chistes y entresueños
Carlos Hernández – Moirai

Visions of the Void II – Kontakte ’17

The next September 30th, 2017 (8:00 PM, DEGEM Konzert ), my work “Visions of the Void II” for piano and electronic (two channels) will be performed at the Festival KONTAKTE ’17 – Biennale für Elektroakustische Musik und Klangkunst, which will be held at the Akademie der Künste am Hanseatenweg in Berlin (Germany) from September 28th to October 1st.

Mirjana Rajić (Belgrad, Dresden) will be the performer on the piano. She was born in Belgrade and studied in Belgrade, Munich, Weimar and later in Imola (Italy), working with Lazar Berman. Mirjana Rajić finished her studies in Dresden. She has won several prizes, among others first prize at the piano competition in Munich 1997, special prize at the international piano competition in San Remo/Italy in 2000 and the INTRO-klassisk competition in Bergen (Norway) in 2002. Mirjana Rajić is playing in Recitals, as soloist with orchestras and as a chamber music partner in Europe, USA and Asia. Her CD-Albums have been released by several labels.

The Festival KONTAKTE ’17 – Biennale für Elektroakustische Musik und Klangkunst is going to be four days full with concerts, sound installations, artist talks and workshops in the Akademie der Künste at the Hanseatenweg. The festival will held its second edition with 28 premieres and more than 100 artists from 27 nations and it’s going to be a focal point for electro-acoustic music and sound art in Berlin.

The DEGEM (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Elektroakustische Musik) will have his own concert at the Festival with works by Karl Gerber, Thomas Gerwin, Rainer Brueck, Hanna Hartman, Jorge García del Valle Méndez and Max Joy. This works were selected this year by the German Society for Electroacoustic Music.

“Visions of the Void II” is a double sided reality (the real and the virtual one) wired together by the compositional structure, which increases their mutual interaction. They constitute an interactive joint: both parts act and react with reciprocal responses giving the impulse to keep moving. The real part is the piano, which it’s alive and walks a given path, exploring the unknown darkness. The virtual part is the electronic, which leads the process and creates an imaginary space within real space where the live component is moving. Both realities are interacting: the piano receives the impulses of the electronic and reacts to it whereas the electronic will change the way we perceive it through the performance of the piano.

The concert will take place on September 30th, 2017 (8:00 PM – 9:45 PM), at the Großes Parkett in the Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg 10, Berlin. Do not hesitate to come if you happen to be in Berlin. The concert is worth a visit!

PROGRAM

Karl F. Gerber, Antriebe (2017) (UA) für experimentellen Violinautomat

Thomas Gerwin, BIG BAN (2015–2017) für präpariertes Banjo und Elektronik

Rainer Bürck, Alleluja (2001/16), 8-kanalige elektroakustische Komposition

Hanna Hartman, Fracture (2016), 2-kanalige elektroakustische Komposition

Jorge García del Valle Méndez, Visions of the Void II (2016–2017) für Klavier und Stereo Fixed Media

Max Joy, Connected Sounds (v4/v8 DEGEM-Version) (2017) (UA), Klang-Choreografie für präparierte mobile Lautsprecher mit vier Spielerinnen und Spieler

Mario Verandi, Between the lines (2017) (UA), 2-kanalige elektroakustische Komposition

Visions of the Void II

My work “Visions of the Void II” for piano and electronic (fixed media, 2 channels) is already programmed in two festivals this year:

NYCEMF in June and SICMF in October.

More news about these two events coming soon!