Live electronics composition
Collaboration between Bea Álvarez and Mattias Spee, renowned dutch pianist. Together they made the piece River, which illustrates the journey of a river from glacier to ocean. For this project, Mattias and Bea used their respective acoustic instruments, piano and viola, as well as several electronic elements, such as synthesizers, samplers and live effects. After a 5-day residentie at Akoesticum Ede in October of 2022, organised by Windows of Opportunity, they premiered this piece at the Muziekhuis Utrecht.
Premiere of River at Muziekhuis Utrecht
Windows of Opportunities Artistic Residency- 2022
"Surrender seems like the most difficult thing in the world. It may even seem impossible. At a certain point, you may feel stuck, frozen, like a giant block of ice. But even the coldest, densest glacier will melt. It can't help it, there is no other way. It gives birth to rivers, that become more voluminous as they merge and have no choice but to go down and down and down, as nature dictates. It grows bigger, it grows stronger, it grows richer and in the end it becomes one with the ocean, which is alive and breathing. The water that makes up that cold, unmoving block of ice can't imagine the journey it's about to undertake, let alone its destination, but it is inevitable that it will live through the experience, when the time is right."
Photos: Claudia Hansen