Camila Agosto is an electroacoustic composer and interdisciplinary artist based in New York City. An avid collaborator, Agosto seeks to discover intersections of her work with other musicians, visual artists, choreographers, instrument builders, and creators.
Her projects range from acoustic and electroacoustic works and orchestral scores to interdisciplinary projects incorporating electronics, visual media, and dance. Her music is both fully notated and improvisational and often employs extended instrumental techniques, with a particular emphasis on the exploration of different timbral and textural elements. Within her works, Agosto is interested in uncovering the sonic potentialities of acoustic instruments through highlighting and exposing the human element of live performance.
Among these works is Transparent Balance, a meditation on a quote by Dr. Seuss that ‘you never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory’ (to paraphrase). “It reflects on the sensation that we are all balancing between the past and the present in each moment of our lives,” Agosto says.
Another is Paracusia II.tethers, which begins after the first piece in this project, during which the character continues to hear violent echoes, imitating their actions, emerge from all around them. “Throughout this installment, the character begins to struggle more intensely against the multitude of voices spiraling around them, as the tethers connecting them to reality begin to snap,” Agosto says.
Agosto’s recent work has been inspired by linked concepts of memory, perception, psychoacoustics in sound and music, and experiences with PTSD, trauma, and dementia, as she seeks to understand the ways in which music and the arts are linked with memory and embodied experiences. This fall, as a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, Agosto is developing new works, including electroacoustic pieces for mixed instrumentation that incorporate her research in somatic experiences and sound healing, custom instrument design and fabrication, and eventual VR installation.
In the spaces between will feature two compositions that combine a range of multidisciplinary elements to create a unique musical experience. The first piece, “The Memory of Water Vol I,” is part of a new series of works that blend text, live composition, improvisation, electronics, and custom instruments. It was created in collaboration with Martine Thomas, a violist and poet.
The second, Paracusia IV, in collaboration with Justin Massey, involves solo saxophone and live surround-sound electronics that emit live, recorded, and processed sounds. The performer reacts to these auditory “hallucinations”— also known as Paracusia— as they struggle against a multitude of spiraling voices.
In the spaces between | Camila Agosto
Tuesday, 31.10.2023 | Doors 19:30 / Starts 20:00 CET
KINDL – Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst | Am Sudhaus 3 in 12053 Berlin
