After two years as maker-in-residence, Guzmán Calzada Llorente concludes his time at Festival Dag in de Branding with his own grand finale: a large work written for ensemble Modelo62, supplemented by members of ensemble Heliosfero, in which old and new music come together in surprising ways.

Guzmán composes contemporary music, but also has a lifelong fascination for Renaissance repertoire. He combines these two loves in this new work, his first full-length composition. Over the past two years, visitors of Festival Dag in de Branding have already heard several presentations of this work in progress.

Guzmán hails from a family of architects. His fascination with the way contemporary architects build upon cultural heritage and ruins inspired him to do the same in a musical context. He adds new notes to music written in the Renaissance, thereby shedding new light on both the traditional and the contemporary. As a sound designer and composer, Guzmán has gained extensive knowledge of the spatial qualities of sound. He views Renaissance polyphony as a kind of sculpture in space. With his new composition, he aims to create a similar kind of musical sculpture.

Guzmán divides his ensemble into three trios: strings; winds; and percussion, piano and guitar. The trios are lined up in front of three white screens delineating their own ‘space’ on the stage. The string trio, on period instruments, takes centre stage, and the other two trios surround it with quasi-electronic sound effects. There is also real electronics. ‘You can build something new on the fragments of something old, in a way that expresses contrast. That is why in my project I place historical instruments side by side with electronics,’ says Guzmán. Read the interview with Guzmán about his residency and the piece Portraits of fictional spaces here.

In the video below, Guzman introduces himself and talks about his residency.