CARLOS SANDOVAL MENDOZA



QU Trompa  —  QU Vara

Berlin, 2005–2017

 

2017, Qu Trompa 2, ship version, commissioned by Callum Froerer

2009, Qu Trompa, commissioned by Paul Hübner, several performances

2005, Qu Vara, commissioned by Hillary Jeffery, several performances


Paul Hübner premiering QU Trompa in Berlin

 

When a brass player blows into their instrument, the breath condenses inside the tubing. Water forms — produced by the performer's own body, collected by the machine. Qu Trompa and Qu Vara take this as their starting point: the instrument as ecological system, the performer as one of its components.

The tape combines processed brass sounds, electronic sounds, and water sounds — a field that interacts with the live performance rather than accompanying it. What happens on stage and what comes from the tape are in continuous relation, neither fully separating.

The score is divided into three physical sections, each requiring a different kind of body from the performer. The first is standard stave writing — the performer reads and executes. The second is graphical: a simple instruction to move from extremely high pitches to extremely low ones, written openly enough that each performer finds their own path through the extremes. The score sets the direction; the body finds the route. The third section stops describing music entirely. It describes hydrology: the circulation of condensed water and water from a bucket through the performer, the instrument, and back again. The performer drinks from the bucket. Condensation drips from the instrument. Water that began as breath returns as liquid, is consumed, becomes breath again. The score notates a cycle, not a sequence.

The body feeds the instrument. The instrument feeds the body back. The threshold between performer and machine is, in the third section, literally wet. This is Field Logic as hydrology: local exchanges between connected nodes, no fixed sequence, a cycle that sustains itself without a conductor. The score sets it in motion and steps back.

 

 

Hillary Jeffery, premiering QU Vara at BKA, Berlin