“ Edelstein’s music is cult, absolutely original, ultra-powerful and new.” Carlos Marín, El Diario
In the new concert “Bitácoras”, Oscar Edelstein from Argentina plays his “un-classic” piano accompanied by tapes and texts, with vocals and video made by Welsh multimedia artist Deborah Claire Procter.
As a composer, pianist and researcher Edelstein is well known for his blend of music which intertwines the popular, classical and contemporary – making him compelling, hard to define, and often considered as leading the avant-garde from Latin America.
Colleagues and critics over the years have compared his music to “á la free jazz” or to names like Cecil Taylor, Zappa, King Crimson, Cage, Varèse, Bartok, Piazzolla, and one conductor even described directing his orchestral work “Cristal Argento I” as like being inside a Picasso painting. But as Edelstein has said, more important than any generous comparison, it’s about originality and being decisively Latin American with all the paradox, passion and politics which that implies.
Edelstein’s composition is acknowledged by many as crucial in the map of Latin American contemporary music, opera and performance.
“Bitácoras” translates as “binnacle” and refers to the ship’s logs which are usually kept on long sea voyages. In ancient times it included a book where sailors recounted their travels and recorded everything that happened. A binnacle is the place where this valuable information was stored to protect it from adverse weather conditions and the vicissitudes of the journey.
This concert is a homage to the wise art of hands encrypted in notations, drawings, poetry – the writings of an ancient journey which for us creates the only reality that matters.
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“Taking inspiration from myriad genres, the composer-cum-director-cum-pianist is one of the most innovative musicians around.” Sophie Hern, Metro Cardiff
“It’s musical in a physical sense, authentic dithyrambic music, realised simultaneously with milimetric precision…” Federico Monjeau, Clarín
“Edelstein possesses a formidable pianistic technique…” Iberia & Latin American Music Society, London
“An unpredictable journey around a kind of sonorous poetry… From the most tenuous & crystalline, up to the real explosion, it’s a fundamental disc, for its importance & originality but especially for its power of communication.” Diego Fischerman, Página 12
“Edelstein – one of the most outstanding composers of avant-garde music in Argentina.” Martín Liut, La Nación
“The rhythmical, multilayered sound fields develop like waves. Edelstein’s close woven music, continuing the tradition of Varèse, has a force which goes under the skin with great vitality.” Christian Fluri, Basellandschaftliche Zeitung
“The electronic part carries the game of the orchestra into another space, another world, another sound universe, like a dream, like a recollection, or how it looks through a kaleidoscope, a prism with various refractions. A powerful percussion mechanism machine was in action, concentrated beams of sound of stream over the listener. It is exciting to hear such avant-garde new music from Latin America.” Roswitha Frey, Badische Zeitung
“…the incredible Welsh vocalist Procter (her voice acting like one more instrument) …a one of a kind singer that is a lucky cross between Cathy Berberian and the free jazz vocalist Lauren Newton.” Jorge Garcia, El Amante
