Buh Records / Peru / 2018
MOJO MAGAZINE (Feb 2019): "Combining collages of native Andean instruments with analogue electronics and magnetic tape, Del Pozo’s mix of loops, drones, woodwind and microtones suggests the sounds of a wild South American forest, ritualistic rhythms combining with animal cries and bird song, a chaos of sounds that, if played long enough, becomes strangely peaceful. An amazing discovery, fully deserving of reissue. (Andrew Male)"
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By the end of the 1970s, a new generation of musicians who combined the use of pre-Hispanic instruments with avant-garde techniques became visible in Lima as they explored native sounds and new technological tools. Among them was Arturo Ruiz del Pozo, a composer who studied with Edgar Valcárcel. After attending the National Conservatory in Lima, he traveled to London in 1976 to enroll at the Royal College of Music, where he earned a master's degree in electronic composition.
Ruiz del Pozo left Lima with a bag full of Peruvian native instruments, intending to incorporate them into his future compositions. In London, he studied under Lawrence Casserly, one of Britain's leading figures in electroacoustic composition—a musician fascinated by the interaction between instruments and electronic media since his time with the pioneering audiovisual experimentation group Hydra.
Ruiz del Pozo applied techniques of musique concrète learned from Casserly. Using sounds from native instruments and subjecting them to various manipulations, he created textures and sonorities that, while evoking rituals, also opened a new field of experimentation. The result was a collage of Andean reminiscences, echoes, and abstractions that transport the listener into an unprecedented sonic universe.
These recordings, titled Native Compositions (Composiciones Nativas), were self-released on cassette in 1984. More than 30 years later, Buh Records rescued them to inaugurate its Essential Sounds Collection, dedicated to publishing rare and fascinating artifacts of Peruvian experimental music from this period.