ISLA Ailem Carvajal (2012)
Rey Rodriguez Productions (Germany)
Lorna Windsor (soprano); Romeo Zucchi (piano); Davide Bandieri (clarinet); Yalica Jo (cello); Maria Zisi (piano); Reynold Cardenas (bassoon); Jose Gasulla (clarinet); Francesco Morittu (guitar); Iliana Ross (piano); Marta Rodriguez Cuervo (musicologist).
Track titles on the album: Aé! Mañunga (for cello and tape); Identidad (for clarinet and bassoon); Pájaros Perdidos (for voice and piano); Suite Insular (for solo piano); Resonancias (for clarinet Sib and tape); Feketek (for solo guitar); Tres Miniaturas (for solo piano); Canción del Infinito (for voice and piano), Eón (for clarinet Mib and tape)
Track titles on the album: Aé! Mañunga (for cello and tape); Identidad (for clarinet and bassoon); Pájaros Perdidos (for voice and piano); Suite Insular (for solo piano); Resonancias (for clarinet Sib and tape); Feketek (for solo guitar); Tres Miniaturas (for solo piano); Canción del Infinito (for voice and piano), Eón (for clarinet Mib and tape)
The majority of the music which can be heard on this CD is related wholly or in part to the artistic thoughts of Ailem Carvajal (La Habana, 1972). They come together to make us reflect on a replete idea which unites the pieces despite their apparent diversity. They offer a wide range of sonorous possibilities with determinate features, which, although are not always the same, nor without appearing in all the pieces in the same way, unite the music through clarity, subtle fantasy and sensual suggestion.
Musica en Iberoamérica (2010)
Trio Cervantes
Sello Autor, Madrid (Spain).
IDENTIDAD by Ailem Carvajal | Suite on Afro-Cuban Themes for clarinet sib and bassoon.
Jose Gasulla (clarinet) and Reynold Cardenas (bassoon)
Identidad, draws inspiration from chants of Afro-Cuban and Hispanic origin, woven into a set of seven movements that contrast in duration, tempo, character, and expressive spirituality. This duet seeks to offer a luminous symbiosis of instrumental timbres, showcasing the full expressive, technical, and sonic capabilities of the instruments.
Tentative Wings (2013)
XXI Century Music for piccolo clarinet
Verso, Madrid (Spain).
EON by Ailem Carvajal for piccolo clarinet and tape
Davide Bandieri (clarinet)
Is a work extrovert, noisy, almost aggressive, inspired by a Dulce Maria Loynaz phrase, "Who could like the river, a fugitive and eternal. Represents a "postcard" of sounds and noises of the city of Havana, where there is no apparent silence, but on the contrary, live sound and sound in great democracy. This work is characterized by the juxtaposition and coexistence of different sound elements. The electronic specific sounds reworked various means of transportation, a pedal-known rumba ostinato of "Havana" and the concept of the infinite flow of time, personified by the water. Instead the clarinet, is presented as discrete character, melodic, subordinate, almost lyrical, to seize a leading space, rhythmic gestures nervous and agitated, in the chaotic final rumba.
Musicisti per L'Accademia italiana del clarinetto (2017)
GDE Edizioni Musicali (Italy).
SUITE CARIBEANA by Ailem Carvajal Transcriptions for clarinet Eb and piano of contradanzas (M. Saumell) and dances (I. Cervantes).
Davide Bandieri (clarinet)
Ailem Carvajal (piano)
Contains a selection of two contradanzas of Manuel Saumell Robredo (Havana, Cuba 1817-1870) and three dances of Ignacio Cervantes (Havana, Cuba 1847-1905), arranged for piano and clarinet, by composer Ailem Carvajal Gomez (Havana, Cuba 1972). The piano music Saumell and Cervantes has a long tradition in the training of musicians in Cuba, in part, for the enjoyment of their performances and works mainly for being exposed for the first time in musical history of the island, identity values Cubans. Composers were able to join in their dances and contradanzas, the most significant features of the language of the nineteenth century European music, with the rhythm of Cuban popular music. They are usually short and intense pieces, which are divided into two contrasting parts. Almost always the first part has an expressive character of harmonic richness and timbre, while the second section is more lively and rhythmic. The titles of the pieces take us back to colonial times in Cuba, where characters, customs and policies were characterized musically. The format of piano and clarinet can extend the lyrical sound of these pieces, rich in joints and phrases. These works offer performers the opportunity to develop their expressive technical skills, together with knowledge of Cuban music concert.
Text by Iliana Ross (musicologist)
Text by Iliana Ross (musicologist)
ƎKOS (2024)
CUBAN ELECTRONIC AND CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Armida Records (Italy)
GOTAS by Ailem Carvajal for solo tape (1996)
Composed at Electroacoustic and Computer Music Studio (EMEC) – University of the Arts (Cuba)
Ailem Carvajal‘s first composition to experiment with sound manipulation was “GOTAS” (1996). Inspired by Pierre Schaeffer‘s acousmatic experience, she recorded six drops and used various techniques to transform them into a piece lasting over six minutes. This piece, composed for tape in Havana at the EMEC – a studio for electroacoustic and computer music founded by her teacher Carlos Fariñas – was one of her early works. It laid the groundwork for her future electroacoustic compositions, establishing the soundscape that Carvajal blends into the enduring and ever-present memory of Havana.
Marta Rodríguez Cuervo (Musicologist) - Complutense University of Madrid (UCM)
Marta Rodríguez Cuervo (Musicologist) - Complutense University of Madrid (UCM)
ƎKOS (2024)
CUBAN ELECTRONIC AND CONTEMPORARY MUSIC
Armida Records (Italy)
SILHOUETTE by Ailem Carvajal for solo tape (2019)
Composed at Electroacoustic and Computer Music Studio (EMEC) – University of the Arts (Cuba)
“SILHOUETTES – Behind Ana Mendieta’s Footprints“, pays tribute to the artist Ana Mendieta. It explores the process of displacement, transforming traces into actions and creating bridges that unite and connect. It recreates and permeates certain symbols and aspects of Afro-Cuban ritual practices. The electroacoustic fabric combines and incorporates elements of nature, ritual chants, body sounds, and Afro-Cuban percussive rhythms of Yoruba and Bantu origin, associated with the primitive and sacrificial rituals of Cuban spiritism. The dialogic combinations of brief, fluid gestures – regrouped and fragmented – amalgamate into a true heterophonic texture, rich in overlapping contrapuntal elaborations.
Winner of the CINTAS Fellowship Award in the USA in 2012. World premiere at the Havana International Festival of Contemporary Music, November 8, 2019
Winner of the CINTAS Fellowship Award in the USA in 2012. World premiere at the Havana International Festival of Contemporary Music, November 8, 2019
f(r)actura en vivo vol. 1 (2021)
Sello Modular (Valparaiso, Chile)
RESONANCIAS by Ailem Carvajal for clarinet and tape (2001)
Luis Insulza (clarinet)
Composed at Electroacoustic and Computer Music Studio (EMEC) – Reina Sofia Madrid (Spain)
Madrid (LIEM - CDMC) in 1999 and the première was in charge of the clarinetist R. Heaton in the VII computing and musical electronics conference of the Centre for the contemporary music broadcasting of Madrid in the 2000's edition and performed afterwards in bass clarinet version in Barcelona and Ireland by the clarinetist H. Sparnaay and in Italy by Davide Bandieri, Marco Ignoti and Simone Simonelli. This work finds its inspiration at the poem Lutum, by the cuban poet Dulce María Loynaz (Cervantes award of literature in 1992). It is characterized by the contrast and difference of sonorous gestures between the clarinet and the tape, findind on the poetic content the settlement and dialogue between two instruments. The tape recreates and reproduces phonemes, vowels, consonants and words that, through an spectral analysis, alowed me to stablish an harmonious field for the melodic and harmonic sequences of the clarinet.
Duetti Domestici (2025)
Natalia Benedetti e Guido Arbonelli
Aventino Music (Italy)
IDENTIDAD by Ailem Carvajal | Suite on Afro-Cuban Themes for clarinet and bass clarinet.
Natalia Benedetti (clarinet) and Guido Arbonelli (bass clarinet)
Identidad, draws inspiration from chants of Afro-Cuban and Hispanic origin, woven into a set of seven movements that contrast in duration, tempo, character, and expressive spirituality. This duet seeks to offer a luminous symbiosis of instrumental timbres, showcasing the full expressive, technical, and sonic capabilities of the instruments.
Dame la mano y Danzaremos (2009)
Musicalia Children & RYCY Productions Inc, (California - USA)
Latin Children Music
Yalica Jo (cello - voice - percussion)
Ailem Carvajal (piano - electronic - percussion)
