ERBARIO (2023-) is an open cycle of compositions, each of them taking inspiration from an extinguished plant with a special behaviour or historical background.
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GAROE, for solo doublebass and soundtrack (ca. 14′)
In Garoe, the contrabass focuses on the gradual transition from a sustained note to a multiphonic. The sustained notes are selected from the Raag Bhairavi series (S, Rm, M, P, Nm) as a tribute to my late friend, Druba Gosh. The soundtrack uses the same material of Aquatica, and is playbacked through a transducer installed on the body of the doublebass.
Garoé (Ocotea Phoetens) is the now extinct fountain-tree of the Canary Islands. This tree was able to collect the humidity present in the air of the trade winds, and condensing it, generated a small stream at its feet. The Guanché human civilization of the Canary Islands, disappeared shortly after the last example of a centenary Garoè tree was cut down by the settlers in the 1600s, as there were no other sources of water on the island. After that fact, the water had to be supplied from the coast by the colonial administration and was used as a form of control and power. As the legend and iconography of this plant survived, in the early XX century the director of the island rangers (Don Zosimo Hernandez Martìn), a botany enthusiast, decided to plant a new tree that could correspond to the characteristics of the Garoé, with excellent results : today other fountain-trees act like the ancient Garoé, supplying water to 54 other “springs” in the Canary Islands. The same system has recently been exported to other areas of the world where water is scarce, such as in some areas of China and mountainous areas of Chili: today plastic sheets are used, which acts like Garoé to collect humidity and transform it into water, and the collectors are called “cloud chasers”.
First Performance: 26-11-2023 Nieuwe Noten Amsterdam, Open Plein Theater.
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Dario Calderone 