With his musique d’ameublement (»furniture music«), Erik Satie set out in 1917 to change the way music was meant to be heard. Sounds, he proposed, should exist in a room like a piece of furniture, ignored by the audience. Sixty years later, Brian Eno took up this idea with his Ambient series, creating pieces that could function either as background soundscapes or for attentive listening. It’s this lineage that Argentinian composer and musician Nicolás Melmann picks up on.
Música Aperta is a three-part minimalist composition in which electronic and acoustic elements merge into a flowing stream of sound – almost entirely unidentifiable. In the first part, Melmann develops a drone reminiscent of works by Kali Malone. In the second, the sounds begin to shimmer and flicker. By the third, traces of instruments like cello or organ can be discerned. The composition functions as both musical background and as a detailed study in sound, where the subtlest shifts in texture can be perceived – true to Eno’s original ambient idea.
Música Aperta
