Using violin, viola, synth and effect pedals, Portuguese string player Maria da Rocha creates rich environments of sound and unusual rhythmic structures over which she plays with subtlety and transcendence, in her first solo album, using her unique language as she tells the story of a beet and a witch, inspired by Odyssey Ulysses and Circe from Cortazar.
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Maria da Rocha-violin, synths, viola
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UPC: 5609063800388
Label: Shhpuma
Catalog ID: SHH038
Squidco Product Code: 25641
Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2018
Country: Portugal
Recorded at the EMS, in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2015 and 2016, by Maria da Rocha.
"Portuguese, violinist and violetist with parallel careers in erudite and experimental improvised music, besides dedications to fado and tango, Maria da Rocha has in Beet Root & Other Stories her first solo album. Successor of the duo recorded with Maria W. Horn, Pink, this new title presents one of several versions already established for the work-in-progress "Beet Root", after the first approaches inspired in Circe, by Julio Cortázar, in which the author's compositions, mainly graphic scores painted with china ink and collages with vegetal paper, were interleaved with others of the Baroque period of composers like Bach, Biber, Uccelini and Corelli.
Along her path, da Rocha enhanced the use of analog synthesizers, the processing of both the violin and the viola with effect pedals and the resource to magnetic tapes, and that investigative work is well reflected here. A solist in interpretations of Beethoven, Hindemith, Hoffmeister and Telemann, among others, and a member of several symphonic orchestras, her interest is more and more oriented to the violin's possibility to "transcend itself in other musical languages besides the classical one".
In the present case, she does it with a dramatization "intensively exploring the feminine universe", telling the story of a beet and a witch in an unusual way and with a distinctive personality. Highly recommended."-Shhpuma
"Bet Rot is a work in progress. Bet Rot Suite was originally composed for violin and electronics to be integrated in a concert installation version with movement, interactive videos and ropes in the room. It is inspired in the Odissée Ulisses and Circe from Cortazar, as well in a specific bodily awareness that comes from dance: feeling the bones, the blood, the muscles, the skin, the air, being hung from the ceiling. Or in other other words, feeling the solid under earth, the liquid water, the airy perfume and envolving light. Bet Rot is a charachter made out of a Beet Root. She is pink/redish and transforms into many shapes, those mentioned before, in a Cycle, like different Water densities or the Seasons."-Maria da Rocha
Artist Biographies
• Show Bio for Maria da Rocha "Maria da Rocha's music has emerged from an intimate connection to the violin and from the fascination how analog synthetised noises can resemble those from everyday life: nature, machines and other sounding objects, partly with a life of their own.Maria da Rocha (Lisbon, PT) plays violin & viola, researches, teaches, creates mostly in the field of new, experimental & electroacoustic music. She played various works solo with orchestra or as tutti and collaborated with ensembles in new music festivals in Portugal, Germany, Sweden, Belgium, United Kingdom and Poland. Maria is also active in other musical styles such as barroque, classical and tango. Her multimedia compositions emerged in collaboration and have been presented in various festivals, such as the release of the album Pink: daRocha/Horn (viola and live electronics). Her solo album Beetroot&OtherStories (violin&electronics) was recorded at awarded composer residencies at EMS, Stockholm and mastered in VICC, Centre for Composers in Visby." ^ Hide Bio for Maria da Rocha
9/4/2024
Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.
Track Listing:
1. Lumen 2:41
2. Wave 7:06
3. Diving 2:23
4. Lost 3:36
5. Fogo 6:54
6. Vertigo 9:35
7. Liq Machina 8:18
8. La Fenix 5:20
9. Peixe Azul 1:57
10. Fulfill 17:22
11. Melancholia 4:47
12. Schaulust 3:02
13. Snowgliss 0:58
Clean Feed
Electro-Acoustic
Improvised Music
Electro-Acoustic Improv
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Solo Artist Recordings
Stringed Instruments
New in Experimental & Electronic Music
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