Simply put, this is a great project, well conceived and marvelously concretized. Arturo Parra, an excellent classical guitarist specialized in the modern repertoire, has commissioned electroacoustic pieces from four of Quebec’s most renown acousmatic composers: Stéphane Roy, Francis Dhomont, Gilles Gobeil and Robert Normandeau. Each work had to stand on its own (and some have been released on other CDs), but Parra also composed four pieces for guitar and tape using them. The eight pieces (tape only and mixed) were premiered at FIMAV 1998 as the program Parr(A)cousmatique. Four years later the label empreintes DIGITALes released Parra’s four mixed works plus a fifth piece composed with Mauricio Bejarano following the same method. The guitarist has managed to respect the spirit and idiosyncrasies of each composer while giving the cycle its own identity. The pure, untreated sound of the classical guitar could have felt like it was just pasted over the tape part. On the contrary, Parra’s playing creates a fully-integrated contrast with the electroacoustics. He uses extended techniques without banning the instrument’s (and his own) Spanish heritage. La basilique fantôme (with Roy) opens with flashes of typical guitar virtuosity that establish the setting of the whole cycle. That piece and L’envers du temps (with Normandeau) provide the best moments. In the latter, the guitarist elaborates a stunning discourse, a song that parallels a rich tape drone. Highly recommended to enthusiasts of electroacoustic music and contemporary acoustic guitar alike.

I’ve been waiting a long time to get the new string of empreintes DIGITALes CD’s, but it’s been worth the wait. Holy smokes. Arturo Parra is the guitarist on this CD of mixed electroacoustics. This is not the mixed (and oh so!) EA you’ve heard at your local university, this is exciting and fervent music by some big names in the EA scene and some lesser ones all working in collaboration with the guitarist Arturo Parra. The first offering, Stéphane Roy’s La basilique fantôme, is one of the most impressive mixes I’ve ever heard. Perfectly superb. The guitar is never hidden, never outdone by the electronics. Roy and Parra create a wonderful symmetry between the ancient baroque origins of the guitar and contemporary EA. Mauricio Bejarano follows with a quieter but equally strong offering in D’or et de lumière. Parra and Bejerano offer some truly breathtaking and serene moments, which I find is always a shocking in EA. The EA legend, Francis Dhomont follows with Sol Y sombra… L’espace des spectres. Signature Dhomont sounds here which I was a bit worried about, but needn’t have been. Temporally, Dhomont has such control of his material. Dhomont is very aggressive with his sounds. Parra’s not afraid of allowing Dhomont’s music to overpower the guitar, and it’s very effective. In Gilles Gobeil’s Soledad Parra uses a lot of percussive guitar sounds and it’s very enjoyable. Huge, loud sweeping textures, reminiscent of the music if Francisco Lopez are juxtaposed with quiet, minimalist sections. Parra’s collaboration with Robert Normandeau in L’envers du temps, is the one weak track on the disc. There’s something about the sound in his work that I’m not as convinced about. Perhaps it’s the emphasis on tonal centres that I couldn’t get into. The press release states that “style wise, this may not be your usual empreintes DIGITALes fair.” Indeed not, and thank heavens for it. I thought the label was in a bit of a funky rut. I see they are not. A great disc.

Le guitariste Arturo Parra a lancé il y a déjà quelque temps le disque Parr(A)cousmatique (Empreintes Digitales) où il se livre à un exercice inusité qui consiste à composer une partie de guitare sur des musiques pour bandes pouvant être écoutées de façon indépendante. Les bandes sont de Stéphane Roy, Mauricio Bejarano, Francis Dhomont, Gilles Gobeil et Robert Normandeau. On a ici le meilleur de ce que peut offrir la musique mixte: une partie électroacoustique réalisée par quelques-uns des meilleurs compositeurs du genre et une partie instrumentale composée par un virtuose qui connaît toutes les possibilités de son instrument. Du grand art.

There is a recent trend in electroacoustic music where instrumentalists with improvisational or compositional skills are collaborating with studio-based electroacoustic composers in the creation of works. Lori Freedman, Randy Raine-Reusch, and Abbie Conant are a few of names that come to mind. Another example is Colombian-Canadian guitarist Arturo Parra who collaborates on this recording with a choice group of Montréal acousmatic composers — Francis Dhomont, Stéphane Roy, Gilles Gobeil, Robert Normandeau, and from Colombia, Mauricio Bejarano.

The most successful of these collaborations in my opinion are those with Dhomont, Normandeau and Gobeil. The intense energy of Parra’s playing is well supported by those artists’ sensitive control of tension and release. They also work because the guitar and the studio parts find frequent points of intersection and dialogue. The Roy piece felt to me that the studio component was on a different plane than the guitar, although to his credit, I found the sounds Roy created to be the most original.

Cooperative efforts such as the one lead here by Parra are long overdue — the synthesis of the two encroaches on old habits and gives acousmatic music a new zest. It is nice to hear a melodic line weaving in and out of voluminous washes and thick stabs, for instance, or hearing the acousmatic component hold the main pitch interest while the guitar screeches and grinds around it. In short, a bold spark on my radar screen. I look forward to similar explorations in the years ahead instigated by Parra and others.

Arturo Parra is a Colombian composer and guitar player living in Québec for the past ten years. With his new release Parr(A)cousmatique, we are treated with a splendid bouquet of works for guitar and tape. Five acousmatic works, five passionate meetings with the acoustic guitar, played without acessories or special preparation. With musical propositions from Bejarano, Dhomont, Gobeil, Normandeau and Roy, Parra builds organic sonic weddings far away from the usual clichés of contemporary guitar.