Starter Packs

Complete your collection with these curated titles, grouped at a special discount.

Shop Now
Mode Records

New Colombian Music for Saxophone Quartet

$18.99

Details

Composer
Rodolfo Acosta, Juan Antonio Cuellar, Carolina Noguera Palau
Artist
SIGMA Project
Format
CD
Label
Mode Records
Released
Apr 03, 2026
Catalog #
MOD-CD-353
UPC
764593035329

About

Since their founding in 2007, the Madrid-based ensemble Sigma Project has premiered more than 85 works and introduced hundreds more to audiences from Teatro alla Scala in Milan to Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Their commitment to commissioning new works is the saxophone quartet's parallel to the Kronos Quartet. Juan Antonio Cuéllar's Cuatro Artificios is a four-movement work that follows the classical structure of the quartet or symphony (Allegro-Adagio-Scherzo-Allegro Finale) and draws on both Baroque and early 20th-century techniques. Each movement is an artificio: a skillful and inventive creation. From Fanfarrias (Fanfares) and it's rhythmic ostinatos and canon to Tocatas (Tocattas), a dizzying moto continuo culminating in an explosive finale. Carolina Noguera Palau's Cánticos del Azar utilizes extended techniques to evoke the chirimías caucanas (flute-led ensembles from Cauca), while also introducing dance-like rhythmic patterns that evoke Cali's vibrant dance culture, emphasized by expressive markings in the score such as con sabor (with spice), sonero (in the style of son music), or movido (swinging). The title of Rodolfo Acosta's Pidiendo agua, traían leña (Asking for water, they brought firewood) is drawn from The First New Chronicle and Good Government, a 1615 Peruvian chronicle describing how chapetones (newly arrived Spaniards) and Indigenous Peruvians were often caught in linguistic misunderstandings. The piece's form is conceived as a series of unrelated episodes that challenge monothematic development. Instead, the episodes function as what Acosta calls "single isles" that one must "visit" without pretending to understand them through the same logic. They are meant to be grasped in their uniqueness. The collaboration between the Spanish ensemble Sigma Project and the Colombian composers featured on this album evokes the narrative behind the work. This collaboration is a 21st-century update of the encounter between the Spanish and the Abya Yala people (the Americas)-an encounter rooted not in conquest, but in mutual recognition and respect for difference.

Tracklist 6 tracks

  1. 1 I. Fanfarrias 03:51
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Fanfarrias
    Duration
    03:51
    Composer
    Juan Antonio Cuéllar
    Ensemble
    Sigma Project
  2. 2 II. Cantos 06:29
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Cantos
    Duration
    06:29
    Composer
    Juan Antonio Cuéllar
    Ensemble
    Sigma Project
  3. 3 III. Danzas 04:29
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Danzas
    Duration
    04:29
    Composer
    Juan Antonio Cuéllar
    Ensemble
    Sigma Project
  4. 4 IV. Tocatas 04:26
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Tocatas
    Duration
    04:26
    Composer
    Juan Antonio Cuéllar
    Ensemble
    Sigma Project
  5. 5 Cánticos del azar 18:26
    Track
    5
    Title
    Cánticos del azar
    Duration
    18:26
    Composer
    Carolina Noguera
    Ensemble
    Sigma Project
  6. 6 Piediendo agua, traían leña 22:38
    Track
    6
    Title
    Piediendo agua, traían leña
    Duration
    22:38
    Composer
    Rodolfo Acosta
    Ensemble
    Sigma Project