Chronotope-Situations’ is a series of pieces for different media created during 2020. This one’s soundtrack material was ‘crowd sourced’ from my circle of friends’ kitchenware noise, sent to me as voice messages, thus embracing the idiosyncratic ‘lo-fi’ aesthetics of current social communication. This relates to the recent social revolt in Chile, which included ‘cacerolazos’ or collective beating of empty pans as a form of noise protest. I remember these from my childhood, when the Chilean people demonstrated against Pinochet’s regime, while the recent ones I’ve only witnessed from afar, through messages from family and friends, and on social media. This is punctuated by a sequence of asymmetrical rhythmic patterns on a bass drum.
Below is a podcast episode where Cat Hope talks to Pedro Alvarez about being a composer and his experiences of the pandemic times.