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Eduardo Polonio — Obra Electroacústica 1969-1981
(Buh Records BR191, 1981/2025, 2LP / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2025-04-01

Obra Electroacústica 1969-1981 Cover art

Christmas Day 2024 was indeed a sad day, the day that Eduardo Polonio García-Camba, aka Eduardo Polonio, a Spanish composer of note, became the late Eduardo Polonio, leaving this world at the age of 83. He was an important figure in the development of electroacoustic music in Spain. Originally an engineering and telecommunication student, he left all that behind to attend the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid in 1968. Beginning in 1984, in a career that spanned well over 40 years, he released ten recordings, including some collaborations, plus a half dozen compilations of his works, this double-LP compilation of his earliest electroacoustic works from 1969 to 1981 being his latest. The eight tracks herein span from his early experimental pieces at the Alea Electronic Music Laboratory in Madrid through to his later work at the Phonos Laboratory in Barcelona. The opening piece, “Para una Pequeña Margarita Ronca” (“For a Little Hoarse Daisy”), offers some exceptional insight into the beginnings of his creations, a fierce combination of multiple layers of rhythmic electronic noise mixed in with a growling elemental sense of chaos for seven and a half minutes. The first side of the set concludes with the fifteen minute “Oficio” from the same year, an improvisational piece created with two low-frequency audio oscillators and some guitar effects, with the two oscillators pitch shifting and modulating as the piece goes forward, taking on some interesting and varied tones. The electronic treatments on many of these earliest pieces are purely in the world of experimentation, not meant to be melodic, but more textural in nature. Side two opens with a piece from 1981, “Flautas, Voces, Animales, Pájaros, Sierra, la Fragua de Protones, Trompetas, Frialdad con Sangre, Arpas Judías, Trompetillas, Agua, Agujero Negro,” the title being a listing of sampled natural sounds and various musical instruments, although a primary element herein is the electric guitar. The piece evolves slowly across its fifteen-minute duration covering a lot of territory as it progresses. “Me Voy a Tomar el Orient Express” from 1976 is about as close as we get to conventional minimalist electronics, with a steady rhythm and a semblance of melody, along with side three opener “El Reclinatorio en el Tejado de la Lejana Abadía” from 1971. Two minimalist pieces occupy side four, “Valverde” from 1981 and “Continuo” from 1970, both seeming to hint at something more melodic, the former built up from ever-evolving loops, the latter a piece for effected electric guitar and bass, bordering on psychedelic, the speed varying slightly up and down as it proceeds. With Obra Electroacústica 1969-1981 you have a most unusual collection of compositions that defy categorization.

Filed under: Archives, 2025 releases, 1981 recordings

Related artist(s): Eduardo Polonio

More info
http://buhrecords.bandcamp.com/album/eduardo-polonio-obra-electroac-stica-1969-1981

 

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