Longs Reverberation Places are several music formats that appear from Andrés’s interest in sound qualities. From 2016 he develops part of his work in long reverberation concert places. First part of this project was focused on marimba concerts in Spanish churches, “Music Through Reflection”. In 2017 Andrés began a theoretical research about time that moved into music by the title of “Do Less”, the premier of this format took place in Sala Verónicas (Murcia, Spain), June 2018.
Do Less
This concert format is based on the relation between space, time and sound. Taking advantage of sound qualities in big buildings, the percussionist Andrés Navarro tries to create a soundscape through the large range of timbres of the percussion instruments. In this performance the audience is surrounded by a choreography of metal sounds (gongs, Tibetan bows, cymbals), woods, water… Based on the premise that each music has to be composed for a specific space, the concert repertoire is formed by pieces composed specially for the occasion, improvisations and other pieces from the Andrés Navarro’s repertoire.
Why “Do Less”
These two words are borrowed from the text “On Laziness and Less Work” by Bojana Kunst. In this text the Slovenian artist is motivating us to do less in order to find the time to heard our inner self. Moving this concept into music, Do Less is a performance which avoids the overloaded music and focuses in the most important characteristic of music, the sound. The main characteristic of the concert is the “absence” of melodies, scales, loud excerpts and rhythms. This absence of elements gives room to develop the sound qualities of the percussion instruments and the sound qualities of the building. In this way the concert hall is turned into a place for observation and meditation. It is why the performance skips the classic format concert which is divided in several pieces and here all the pieces or parts are linked, the concert is offered as an unit which allows the spectator to find his own way during the performance.
Apart of the Slovenian artist Bojan Kunst and other texts about time, this performance is influenced by music concepts of composers such as Morton Feldman, Eric Griswold, John Cage and sound artists such as Alvin Lucier and Murray Schafer.
Music through reflection
In this concert format marimba and reverberation become the main characters. The concert program is formed by a collection of pieces for marimba which have been specially thought for long reverb places. Some of the pieces which have been performed in the last concerts are:
Toccata (2001) . Anna Ignatowicz
Pamplona (1988) . Frank Nuyts
Etude for a Quiet Hall (1982) . Christopher Deane
In A Landscape (1948) . John Cage Chaconne in D minor (1720) . J. S. Bach Toccata
O
O also appears as result of the time researches of Andrés Navarro, in particular from the question “How long is taking a painting?”. As musician is very easy to know when a music piece has finished, just we have to wait for the clapping of the audience, then performers and audience know that the piece has finished but, how long is a painting or a sculpture taking? In O the notion of duration of the music pieces is avoided to give room to the idea of éternité. O also put attention in emphasizing the daily agitation by means of submerging the audience in an environment of delicate sounds. In spite of all the sound information in information, the pieces which are played during the performance are as soft as to create a quiet and spiritual atmosphere. Some of the pieces which can be played during O are:
Enclosures (2008) . Hugo Morales, for cajón and electronics
Silence must be (2002) . Thierry de Mey, , for conductor and tape
Spill . Eric Griswold (2007), for rice bowl and utensils
Roar (2002) . John Luther Adamas, for tam tam and electronics
How is “O” made?
By means of recording processes every piece of the concert can stay sounding after having been performed. When the artist finishes playing the first piece, a recording of this piece that has been recorded during the performance starts playing. Then the artist can go to the next instrument and makes the same action. When the last piece has been performed, a scape of delicate sounds is playing around the audience as a kind of sound installation. This sound installation can stay playing for days or weeks until the performer comes back and switches off all the music pieces by means of performing them, a new part of music can be played before starting switching off all the pieces.
Andrés Navarro 