Alejandra Hernández: Voces

Alejandra Hernández presents the multi-channel acousmatic piece titled “Voces (Voices)“, which arises from artist’s researches upon the acoustic landscape of the mountainous region of Cantabria in northern Spain. Here, a long-standing tradition still survives, entrusted to the skills of the few artisans left, which consists in the tuning of cowbells to call the flock. The sounds produced by these bells form an entire “alphabet” of signals, each one characterised by a different timbre and aimed to call back a different flock. The range of these sounds constitutes a common language for the community, which they call “voices”. Hernández recorded and manipulated them digitally, with three different treatments of the sound and its movement in space: vast sound masses, slender lines that interweave and disperse, and brief sounds with specific locations.