Mauricio López F.

mauricio lópez F.

Music and sound

“Sobre apreciar los malentendidos / about appreciating misunderstandings” – Live video and graphic score.

Graphic score, Live, MUSIC, Sound, SOUND ART / 18/02/2024

This piece was born as an attempt to materialize a situation we witnessed on a bus in Chicago. In this context, the clash of different languages and the confusion of translation gave rise to an uncomfortable yet flavorful scene. The initial sketches took the form of precarious notes to capture what was observed, then it was translated into sound. To achieve this, I used a percussive treatment of the guitar based on the resonance of its open strings. I altered these by creating two groups of tunings (each consisting of 3 consecutive strings) in such a way that these would vibrate according to the part of the body that has been hit.

On the other hand, the recited voice plays a game of question and answer with an automated translation. This robotic attempt aims to exemplify everything that is lost when translating ideas from the native language to acquired ones. The graphic score arises as a result of some guiding drawings I made during the composition process, and with the idea of not wasting any material, it seemed like a good opportunity to open up its interpretation.

Thanks to my friend Sarah Lutkenhaus, who not only helped me with the best strategies for illustrating my ideas but also with the layout of the score.

I don’t consider my version to be definitive one, and I believe I am still working on expressing these discomforts in a sonic form. It’s a first attempt.

Live at High Concept Labs in the context of Waveforms 2023 (SAIC 2023):

Graphic score for download:

Download

YOU CAN WATCH NOW “LA hISTORIA dE CHILE, SEGÚN BERNI” ANIMATED SERIES.

MUSIC / 15/05/2023

This was a very fun project to work on, 20 episodes, 5 minutes each. They asked me to use mainly chiptunes sounds, so it was a great opportunity to let my video games addiction shine in a productive way. Also, it was a great chance to study more about timbre modification in the context of arrangement, and the reinterpretation of musical instruments -and their functionality- with a limited set of tools.

Thanks to this wonderful team for thinking that my music could fit in this project.

You can watch “La Historia de Chile, Según Berni” (The History of Chile, according to Berni) here.

ANDER EXHIBITION FINAL WEEK

EXHIBITION, SOUND ART / 18/02/2024

This Sunday, January 8, will be the last day to enjoy the exhibition ANDER: Resistencia Cultural en El Trolley y Matucana 19 at the National Museum of Fine Arts.

ANDER is a multidisciplinary showcase designed by José Délano and curated by Juan José Santos that portrays two emblematic spaces of the Chilean underground culture of the eighties. These places were key to artistic and recreational development in times of dictatorship. This exhibition was praised by critics on the Artforum.com site and on prominent chilean platforms such as Artishockrevista.com.
In this project I was in charge of the implementation of sound and image. Due to the hybrid nature of the exhibition, we had to use different devices to achieve the expected result. There are a total of 25 raspberry pi that are connected to projectors, CRT TVs and LCD screens. For the sound, we use headphones and build 6 custom-made directional speakers that hang from the ceiling. This allowed us to generate different acoustic atmospheres, reminiscent of the ambient sounds of the bohemian spaces of that time.

For more information please visit: https://www.anderexpo.cl

LERDO’S NEW ALBUM FIRST PREVIEW

MUSIC / 13/01/2023

“Una noche estrellada” is Lerdo‘s first music video in the context of the upcoming album LA MÁXIMA (2023). You can also enjoy three new songs on our Spotify (and other platforms).

“DE 0 A 100” INSIGHT

MUSIC / 03/01/2023

In this post I want to share certain intestinal details from the nerdy look of production-composition or whatever you want to call it. This is going to be a bit long, bear with me and fasten your seatbelts *sound of keys and engine starting:

1) The search for timbres seems essential to me. EarthQuaker Devices Data Corrupter is something like the typical magical sword that is stronger than the person holding it, controls itself and ends up destroying everything. But something happened that day, we reached an agreement. He was docile for about an hour.
2) There are a lot of guitar tracks roughly spread out in the stereo landscape. From bee sounds, to tuned ones one octave lower than standard.
3) The percussions are a mix between digital and organic. The 808 takes care of what it knows how to do and on top there are multiple bass drums and toms with very loose heads. The shakers and congas are essential to give a bit of containment to all the disorder of the strings. Thank you Óscar and Carmen Estudio for recording them.
4) Could have used a fancier option, the e845 is one of my favorite mics. It runs clean, it runs dirty, and it’s “cheap”.
5) All voices are overdriven. There is a main one; then an “out of tune” but very overacted (I have started to use this resource a lot and I really like the result); and finally a dubbing that sometimes harmonizes.
6) I think that in this mix I made more emotional decisions than technical ones in favor of the flow of the composition. At first the song can feel a bit flat since the only thing that accompanies the voice is a consolidation of all the sounds passed through a digital room. The direct instruments fill the space while the lyrics thicken.
7) I had never worked such a large session, but the density was necessary for the mass. I don’t recommend it that much.

If you made it this far, I love you. If you have questions or want to collaborate with me, let’s talk about everything.
You can listen and see De 0 a 100 here https://linktr.ee/elprimerextranjero