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Descontento general,  reúne algunas improvisaciones grabadas a principios de 2001 por FR en La Casita de Carbono, en Toay, algunas con un walkman de cassette de uso periodístico y otras a través de una mixer, también en cinta.
El track 11: Desde la ventana (traducido como outdoors)  fue publicado por la revista Musicworks de Canadá, en el cd que acompaña la edición nro. 89 (2004)

Los cuises son: Gustavo Sidam en guitarra y Fabián Racca en guitarra, canciones improvisadas, y mezcla con grabaciones de campo en 1 y 5.

Contexto:

Es el 2001 y hay un clima de «descontento general». Manifestaciones  en las calles casi todos los días. Hace poco, el intendente de Santa Rosa, metió la policía con perros en la municipalidad, y, cuando una marcha de protesta se concentró en la plaza, abrieron las puertas de entrada, y  les largaron los perros!!

En estos días, Los cuises , se apuran a terminar de levantar una pared antes de que venga el invierno. El chile (Gustavo),que es el albañil, se hace el que reniega porque el ayudante (que soy yo), está muy gordo y por ahí se distrae, y no le rinde. Son más de las 6 y está empezando a caer el sol. Se lavan las herramientas, se pone la pava al fuego y desde un rincón, ya están llamando las guitarras. Las auténticas guitarras tiocas, recicladas una y mil veces.

Un rato nomás!, dice el chile, mientras empieza a “afinar”, (porque los «guachos» la estuvieron tocando y la dejaron cualquier cosa!). Después se pone muy frío, y la moto vigilanta esta me vuelve loco, encima capaz que engancho a los de tránsito a la pasada!!….. Las guitarras entran solas al juego, suenan de fondo en la charla, y  ya aparece un ritmo que te hace cantar y es un gran momento del día . Y el rato, se hace una, dos, tres horas ….

Track 04 (En vivo con ili): Iliana tiene 2 años y medio, estoy jugando con ella mientras su padre (mi hermano) termina de hacer una escalera, acerco un despertador al mic del walkman , tiene los auriculares puestos, escucha atentamente. Juega dando una especie de indicaciones, yo voy respondiendo con la armónica, aparece Gustavo con el mate, es parte de la improvisación, ella incorpora todo lo que sucede al  juego, con naturalidad. (FR)

Con respecto a posibles planteos acerca de la manera de tocar, la afinación o desafinación,  la condición de música o no-música entre otros, tuve la suerte de recopilar en distintos momentos algunas charlas ya sea de forma fortuita o a partir de experiencias directas (por ej. comentarios después de una improvisación colectiva con gente que no se dedica a la música).  Estas charlas, sumadas a algunas lecturas y escuchas de trabajos de relevamientos musicológicos sobre tradición oral, me fueron convenciendo de la existencia de otras lógicas, de otros sentidos de la música que fueron invisibilizados u olvidados en la vorágine de la sociedad moderna y su industria cultural. Por ello hay altas probabilidades de que al no tener referencias para establecer conexiones más o menos directas, muchas prácticas, o conceptos de antigua data, solo tengan un lugar dentro de lo considerado como «vanguardia» en la actualidad.

A continuación transcribo una charla que recopilé justamente a principios de 2001, y que tiene relación con la práctica de Los cuises:

“Encuentro con un tal Mora, encargado de limpieza en la galería donde yo trabajaba. Un día pasó a

despedirse, se iba a vivir a Buenos Aires”:

Mora– Mis hijos han hecho un grupo de música pop, voy a ver si estando  allá los puedo ayudar para que se presenten en la tele, en Tinelli…total, en todos lados voy a tener que rebuscármela,  y enganché para cuidar una casa allá, en Morón.

FR- Claro,…y vos también tocás algún instrumento?

M- (sorprendido) Yo?, eh, sí pero ahora hace rato que no, porque me preguntás?

FR-Se me ocurrió, a mi también me gusta tocar música, con un amigo, tocamos a dúo con guitarras…

M- Y que estilo hacen?  FR – Improvisación…  M- Ah, tipo payada  FR – No, no tanto, nos guiamos por lo que va saliendo, y siempre son músicas distintas. De esa manera…

M-Ahá, y como afinan?   FR- y, depende, no siempre igual. Por ej, si  tocás las cuerdas al aire y sale algo que te gusta, ahí  está. Otras veces le aflojás algunas cuerdas y tensás otras,   o tocás como venga. A Gustavo aparte,  le gusta repetir una que ha encontrado y que enseguida le funciona para encontrar la música…..

M- Has escuchado hablar de la afinación en tercera? Es algo parecido. Yo soy de Neuquén y así afinan los

guitarreros chilenos viejos que andan allá y los paisanos de antes. Pero ya quedan pocos.

FR- No se mantienen como tradición?

M – Ya te digo, algunos quedan todavía, pero se va perdiendo. Los pibes jóvenes están en otra cosa, ahora se toca bien.

FR –  Vos decís la afinación común?

M – Y sí, para sacar las canciones, es más fácil.

FR –  Claro… No, a mi no me da para sacar canciones por ahora, me gusta escuchar la música que

va apareciendo…

M –  Mi suegra toca así.       FR –  …En serio?

M –  Si, tiene 75 años, …y hace música para los borrachos  FR – …(?)…. M- Mete los dedos en cualquier lado, (hace un gesto, como si fuera uno de Kiss)  FR –..(?)…  M –Pero si te ponés a prestar atención, por ahí salen unas cosas de lindas, que ni ella sabe como..  FR-…(?)…  M-Ojo, tiene lo suyo esa manera, pero es otra  lógica   FR-…(?)…   M- Che…bueno, me voy, será hasta algún momento

FR –  ….eh…adiós, …suerte…

(Charla recopilada por Fabián Racca cerca del 2001, en Santa Rosa, La Pampa)

Descarga gratuita / free download album

http://archive.org/download/Cprlp18_descontentoGeneral/Cprlp18_descontentoGeneral_vbr_mp3.zip

Escuchar / listen:

01- Cómo relajarse con el viento en contra	02- El cartero
03- Tema romántico	04- En vivo con ili
05- El día que crujió el sauce	06- Por quien y por cuánto
07- De lo profundo	08- Otra vez de franco
09- Aroma de betunolia	10- Cortando campo
11- Desde la ventana

In late 1998, we moved to a place that by then was far from the city, in the countryside around Toay; it was the only option left to us if we wanted access to land and stop paying rent. In less than a month we settled in a small wooden house among dunes with my partner Claudia. In the first five years we had a more intense activity in several directions at once, and one of the usual tasks was to build, with our ineffable friend Gustavo (“Chile”), what today is our home and that little cabin would then be the CarbonoProyecto studio (Little Carbono House). With no car, no phone, with a bus running 1km away from our house, we went to office every day in the city only to come back and work with concrete, bricks, buckets and rubble with great enthusiasm to be building our place in the future. And after each day, at sunset, came one of the most expected moments of the day: mates with guitars and improvisations. With Gustavo we shared a friendship since late 1994 in the days of radio, and while it is very complex to recount in its implications I can summarize our jam sessions as a bridge between two very different life stories but also the discovery of a language with its own logics and codes.

The name of Los cuises (a kind of guinea pig but somewhat bigger than domestic varieties), arose from the observation of these cute little animals that live in our backyards, always hidden from dogs, foxes and cats, waiting for a moment of quiet solitude for eating out and playing in the sun. We felt that our sessions, which were never translated before an audience, were just that, a way to take advantage of the remoteness of the city to play music without prejudice. Such an experience emerged naturally without any predetermined pattern, provided that we only heard and listened at the same time. We did it led by the feedback of each individual action mixed with the other’s, allowing for coexistence to speak for itself and flow in unexpected interactions or harmonies. Guitars of rickety, unpredictable sounds, to which we added strings that were cut, or replaced by tanza [plastic wires used for lawnmowers] or exchanging missing ones, for example if the second was missing and fifth was available it was replaced by that and we were ready to play with his presence of bordona among primas and heard what came out. And there was always humor in the songs, either to invoke or invent an experience at the time, or doing some play on words that risked building some sense in real-time, a practice that I find to be related with repentismo as to what Gabino Ezeiza, payador, valued when a counterpoint accuses his opponent saying “I improvise quickly while you stop quite a while to think”

Now that I listen to these recordings again, I realize that many comments can be written on Los cuises as an experience or perception of the phenomenon we call music, but another question will always come up, a difficult one or impossible to answer fully in words. To these questions the answers sound on these recordings, at the time shared with very few friends that valued them (as Mario Ayala) but generally rejected in our wider environment. But not all was said and due to lack of local references and after reading some articles written by Pauline Oliveros and Hildegard Westerkamp, I dared to write them about the ideas that came up in the emerging Carbonoproyecto and send them some recordings, including this Los cuises’ disk asking for opinion. Great was my surprise for their favorable comments and commitment to help me spread the CP in other parts of the world, something that completely exceeded Los cuises’ imagination playing in La Casita. But well, Carbonoproyecto is made of those crosses between worlds that seem little connected, that is actually its real experimental attitude.

Thanks to CPRecords we can today share many musical and sound adventures that enriched all these years, as “Lo mejor del2000” [Best of 2000], a first album compiling Los cuises improvisations between 1999 and 2000, with a walkman stereo for journalists. The disc includes field recordings made by Gustavo Sidam during a trip to Neuquen, visiting relatives and places where he lived during his childhood and adolescence.
Los cuises are: Gustavo Sidam in guitarra tioca, unplugged guitar and field recordings and Fabián Racca, guitarra tioca, unplugged guitar, voice and field recordings editing.

Tracks 03 and 05 were part of the seven audio tracks from CP published in the accompanying CD of # 89 issue of the Canadian magazine Musicworks in 2004, along with an extensive article by the composer and editor Gayle Young and Fabian Racca.

Descontento general [popular discontent], gathers some improvisations recorded in early 2001 by FR at Little Carbono House in Toay, some with a cassette walkman and others by using a mixer, also on tape.
Track 11: Desde la ventana [From the window] Translated as outdoors, it was published by Musicworks journal of Canada, on the CD that accompanies the edition no. 89 (2004).
Los cuises are: Gustavo Sidam (guitar) and Fabián Racca (guitar, improvised songs, and mixing with field recordings in 1 and 5).

Context:

It is 2001 and there is an atmosphere of “general discontent”. There are demonstrations in the streets almost every day. Recently, the mayor of Santa Rosa got the police and some dogs into the municipality building, and, when a protest march focused on the plaza, he opened the gates, and dogs where thrown to the people!
These days, Los Cuises are rushing to finish up a wall before winter comes. Chile (Gustavo), which is the builder, pretends to grumble at the fact that his assistant (me) is too fat, wanders around, and doesn’t produce enough. It’s after 6 and sun begins to set. Tools are washed, the kettle is on the fire and from a corner guitars are calling. The real tiocas [rustic] guitars, recycled over and over again.
“Just a minute!” says Chile, as he begins to “tune” his (because the kids were playing with them and left it differently). “Then it gets really cold, and this f’n motorbike dre bike watcher this drives me mad, and I may even get caught by transit police!” The guitars come by themselves into the play, they sound as background in the talk, and there comes a rhythm that makes you sing and this is a great time of day. And the minute becomes one, two, three hours…

Track 04 (Live with Ili): Iliana is two years and a half, I’m playing with her while her father (my brother) ends to build a ladder. I take an alarm clock close to the walkman mic, while she has the headphones on, carefully listening. She plays by giving some kind of orders, I’m responding with the harmonica, Gustavo shows up with mate. She is part of improvisation, she incorporates everything that happens into the play, naturally. (FR)

As regards possible questions about the playing, tuning or detuning, or the condition of non-music or music among other issues, I was lucky to collect some talks at different times either by chance or from direct experience (for eg. remarks after a collective improvisation with people who are not dedicated to music). Through these talks, plus some readings and the listening of musicological surveys on oral tradition, I became convinced of the existence of other rationale, other senses of music that were invisible or forgotten in the maelstrom of modern society and its cultural industry. So there are high chances that due to lack of references to establish more or less direct connections, many practices, or ancient concepts, just to have a place within what is considered “avant-garde” today.
Below I transcribe a talk I collected just at the beginning of 2001, which is related with Los cuises’ practices:

“Meeting with a certain Mora, janitor at the gallery where I worked. One day he went to say goodby, he was about to move to Buenos Aires”:

Mora-My kids have formed a pop band, I’ll see if I can help being there to present them on TV, in Tinelli’s show … Anyhow, I’ll have to make my living anywhere, and I managed to get a job on home help in Morón [a suburban district in Buenos Aires province].
FR- Sure, and do you also play any instrument?

M-(surprised) Me?, Uh, yeah, but not in a while now, why do you ask?

FR-I thought, I also like to play music with a friend, in a duet with guitars …

M-And what style do you play?

FR – Improvisation…

M- Ah, you mean payada [improvised gaucho folksong] type

FR – No, not so much, we are guided by what comes out, and different music comes out always that way…

M-Aha, and how do you tune in?

FR-It depends, it’s never the same. For example, if you touch the strings and get something you like, there it is. Other times you loosen or tense some strings or you play it as it comes. Gustavo, besides, likes to repeat a tuning he has found and with which he can quickly find music…

M-Have you heard of “afinación en tercera” [tuning in the third string] Is something similar. I’m from the Neuquén and that’s the way old peasant and old Chilean guitar players tune in. But there are few.

FR- Isn’t it kept as a tradition?

M- As I tell you, there are still some, but they are being lost. Young kids are doing something else, now they play really well.

FR- You mean the usual tuning?

M- Of course, to get the songs played, it is easier.

FR- Sure … No, I do not give to get songs for now, I like to listen to music just as it comes out…

M- My mother-in-law [living in Neuquen province] plays that way.

FR- Really?

M- Yes, she’s 75 years old, … and she plays music for drunkards

FR – … (?) ….

M-She puts her fingers on either side, (makes a gesture as if he were one of Kiss’ group)

FR – .. (?) …

M- But if you start to pay attention, some nice things go out there, that not even she knows how…

FR-… (?) …

M- I mean, that way has its merit, but it’s quite a different rationale

FR-… (?) …

M- Look, well, I gotta get going, see you!

FR –Uh… goodbye and good luck…
(Compiled by Fabián Racca about 2001, in Santa Rosa, La Pampa)