Instantes [Instants] seeks to be a collection of moments of introspection. Perception of the body, of the world, of time. “Listen to me with your whole body,” Clarice asks.

Clarice Lispector’s text Água Viva was adapted and read by Tiago Boto, Nuno Veiga, Juliana Campos, Sara Marita, and also by myself.

The sound material that gives life to Instantes comes mostly from these voices, and all the narrative constructed has the purpose of serving absolutely the text, either in episodes where the word itself is sound, or in episodes where the sound serves the word in an almost madrigalesque way.

This piece is also the result of a range of influences from several composers who inspire my work. Particularly Annette Vande Gorne, in the way she composes voice and text, and her research on space as a musical expressive parameter in acousmatic music; Jaime Reis, in his search for polyphony of gestures and spatial movements; Elizabeth Anderson whose complex textures of her pieces Les forges de l’invisible, Solar Winds, and … and Beyond appear in my piece as a support to Lispector’s narrative; and also Luciano Berio who, in Visage, gives us the voice with a true musicality.

[v-23]

Premiere

• February 1, 2023, Vox Alia — Une autre voix, Son-sens, Le Senghor, Brussels (Belgium)