HECTOR PARRA (b.1976): Early Life for Oboe, Piano and String Trio, Stress Tensor for Piccolo/Flute, Bass Clarinet/Clarinet, Piano and String Trio (ensemble recherche), Caressant l'Horizon for Large Ensemble (Ensemble intercontemporain; Emilio Pomárico).

Description: Parra's complex, sonorous soundscapes reflect his interest in reflecting reality at its most intricate and microcosmic. Rich, complex timbres abound, not infrequently augmented by extended playing techniques and incorporating noise textures. In keeping with a young man's ambitious æsthetic of depicting far-reaching meanings and implications, the music often takes on a texture of extremes - of dynamic, of register, in the juxtaposition of weighty, massive sound with delicate harmonics and abstract noises at the opposite end of the musical spectrum. The scientific subjects addressed here are evolution, with a clear direction from rough, mineral formlessness to a polyphonous organic density; the distortion of space-time that leads to gravitational fields in Einsteinian physics; and the primal energy of the cosmos (the 'horizon' of the third piece's title is the event horizon of a black hole). This large ensemble piece is sonorously dramatic, and will likely appeal to admirers of Xenakis, though Parra's textures are typically more open and inticate, perhaps closer to Varèse.