2023     'Camanchaca' 
               String Quartet n. 1

Camanchaca refers to a dense, cold, and persistent type of fog that appears along the seashore on the coast of Chile. The word originates from the native Aimara language and translates to 'darkness' due to its density.

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This composition is the sound-story of things I have witnessed from the view I had at home as I grew up, overlooking the sea in a tiny fishing village on the coast of Chile. From this spot, I would see the camanchaca fogs in the mornings appearing in the bay, overtaking the whole landscape, sometimes so dense that it felt like being inside a cloud. Through this same window, I have seen perhaps a hundred beautiful full yellow moons reflecting on the sea, and images of genuine peace etched into my memory since childhood.

 

At the same time, alongside these scenes, I have also witnessed disaster and violence, such as the earthquake and tsunami that occurred on the night of February 27, 2010, in Chile, which had a magnitude of 8.8 on the Mw scale. It was a full moon, and I have this "Hollywood-esque" image in my mind of witnessing a gigantic wave towering above a five-story building.

 

But little is spoken about the sounding imagery associated with earthquakes and tsunamis, such as the shaking of objects, the crunching of walls, and the low roar that emanates from the ground before an aftershock. From this particular experience, the sounds of wooden fishing boats smashing against the breakwater wall, which echoed throughout the whole night, remained vividly in my mind.

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