Gustavo Díaz-Jerez: Metaludios III
Metaludios III, Book VII: Velated Kōan
14,95€
Metaludios III marks a major new chapter in the acclaimed Metaludios cycle by Spanish pianist and composer Gustavo Díaz-Jerez, one of the most original voices in contemporary piano music. Bringing together Books VI and VII, this album continues Díaz-Jerez’s exploration of the intersection between music, science, technology, and imagination, confirming the series as a reference point in 21st-century repertoire.
BOOKLET
14,95€
Book VI
Boojum
Boojum is inspired by the fictional creature that first appeared in Lewis Carroll’s poem The Hunting of the Snark. The creature is whimsical and elusive. In physics, a boojum refers to a type of topological condition that can occur in certain materials, such as liquid crystals and superfluids.
Long Short-Term Memory
Google Brain’s Magenta — a research project exploring the role of machine learning in the creation of art and music — formed the basis of the compositional process. A dataset comprising a large body of MIDI data drawn from existing Metaludios was used to train several Magenta models. Training lasted approximately 50 hours, after which hundreds of MIDI files were generated and three were selected.
To improve readability, these files were re-notated in Sibelius (notation software), with phrasing, pedalling (based on MIDI sustain data), and some expression marks added. The music was also redistributed between the hands in a more pianistic, practical way. Apart from this, no modifications were made to the original machine-generated data in terms of rhythm, tempo, pitch, dynamics, or pedal information.
As a composer, I am both fascinated and mystified by the result. I clearly hear reminiscences of other Metaludios, although nothing is ever repeated literally. The algorithm has evidently learned from the dataset and can generate material “in my own style.” I believe that machine learning has great potential as a creative tool for composers.
River of Oblivion
This Metaludio is part of 4Bars, a project by photographer Blas González that combines abstract images with written music.
An image by Blas was processed and converted into an audio file, which was then transcribed into MIDI. This MIDI file served as the basis for the piano score. During performance, the electronic part and its piano transcription are played in synchrony, creating a rich, layered sound through subtle differences in intonation. This amalgam produces a sonic kaleidoscope that evokes the “overpainting” technique of German artist Gerhard Richter.
Blurred Words
This Metaludio is based on the following phrase, read by poet Belinda Sánchez Mozo:
“Palabras borrosas, como tu mirada en la iridiscencia.”
(Blurred words, like your gaze in the iridescence.)
Using special software, the original audio was converted into MIDI data, similar to Peter Ablinger’s Speaking Piano. Since the original recording lasts only four seconds, the tempo was slowed by a factor of 60, resulting in a total duration of approximately 4.5 minutes. Alongside the live piano, an electronic part was created from the same audio, also slowed 60-fold.
Tombeau de Ravel
This Metaludio is conceived as an abstract tombeau: a sonic memorial that echoes Ravel’s world through timbre, colour, and atmosphere rather than quotation. A single, persistent bell-chord anchors the piece, while shifting harmonic fields and blurred textures unfold around it. The tempo remains steady, yet the surface breathes with rubato, creating a sense of suspended time and solemn reverie.
Domain Walls
In Domain Walls, I explore the concept of boundaries and transitions in the physical world. In physics, domain walls refer to interfaces between regions with distinct properties or symmetries. These topological defects appear in contexts ranging from magnetic materials to the early universe.
Through this Metaludio, I aim to capture the tensions, contrasts, and dynamics that arise at the boundary between states. The piano becomes a canvas for relationships between order and disorder, continuity and discontinuity, inviting the listener to experience the complex beauty of transition.
Book VII
Fuzzball
This Metaludio is entirely based on sequence A360521 from the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences (OEIS), a major source of inspiration in my work. The piece is dedicated to Neil Sloane, founder and chairman of the OEIS.
To create it, 10,000 terms were calculated and mapped to the range of a standard piano keyboard. The sequence was then reversed, beginning with the 10,000th term. A MIDI file was generated with each note lasting 27 milliseconds, producing a duration of approximately 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
The piano part is performed in sync with pre-recorded electronics that use all 10,000 notes, assigned to different sounds and textures. The performed score is an adaptation of the original data, distilled into a play-able form.
The sequence’s collapsing, grainy quality and its mixture of chaotic and ordered behaviour inspired the title. In string theory, a fuzzball reimagines a black hole as a dense, grainy region of spacetime rather than an empty void bounded by an event horizon.
Forget Gate
This Metaludio was created using the same AI model as Long Short-Term Memory. It stands at the intersection of human intuition and machine-assisted imagination. Built with a recurrent neural network (RNN) using Google’s Magenta framework — trained exclusively on my own Metaludios — the process did not replace composition, but extended it as a space for reflection, variation, and discovery within an established musical language.
Velated Kōan
Velato is an esoteric programming language created by Daniel Temkin that uses MIDI files as source code. Programs are defined by the pitch and order of notes. Velato is Turing-complete, meaning it can perform any computation.
This Metaludio is itself a Velato program. I leave it to the listener to discover its output.
It also employs an extension of 17th-century non mesuré notation, as used by composers such as Luis Couperin and Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre.
Perseus’ Lament
Perseus’ Lament draws its musical material from NASA’s sonification of pressure waves emitted by the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Perseus galaxy cluster. Although sound does not propagate in the vacuum of space, the cluster contains vast amounts of gas, allowing such waves to travel. These oscillations occur around 57 octaves below middle C and are therefore inaudible to the human ear.
They were normalized and resynthesized into the human hearing range (20–20,000 Hz). NASA’s original 30-second sonification was expanded to approximately six minutes using special software that preserved its harmonic and timbral complexity. All musical material was extracted from this version, and the harmonies in the piano part result from adapting the extended black-hole sound to equal temperament (12-ET).
Non-tempered sonorities coexist with their ornamented, live “translation” by the pianist, producing a sonic kaleidoscope reminiscent of Gerhard Richter’s “overpainting” technique.
Osinissa
Osinissa was the last aboriginal king of El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands, and my twelfth great-grandfather. His submission to the conquistador Hernán Peraza the Elder in the mid-15th century marked the beginning of Spanish rule on the island.
This Metaludio uses a processed image of a tilted savin juniper tree — typical of El Hierro — as its source material. The image was converted into sound (WAV) and then into MIDI, forming the basis for the composition. The overall form and harmonic scheme derive from this process, later highly ornamented and dynamically shaped. The piece also incorporates quotations from traditional El Hierro melodies.
Schumann Resonances
Schumann resonances are electromagnetic waves that occur in the cavity between the Earth’s surface and the ionosphere. Generated primarily by lightning, their fundamental frequency is around 7.83 Hz, with higher harmonics.
Musical material was derived from these fundamentals and harmonics, forming both chords and melodic lines. The frequencies were multiplied by four to reach the audible range. The piece also draws on material from Robert Schumann’s lied Mein schöner Stern.
GUSTAVO DÍAZ-JEREZ
Gustavo Díaz-Jerez is one of the foremost Spanish pianists and composers of his generation, Gustavo Díaz-Jerez has gained an international following among audiences as well as unanimous critical acclaim for his performances of both contemporary music and the time-honored repertoire.
Born in the Spanish Canary Islands, Gustavo Díaz-Jerez studied piano with Jesús Ángel Rodriguez at the Conservatorio Superior of Santa Cruz (Tenerife), and subsequently with Solomon Mikowsky at Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he also studied composition with Giampaolo Bracali and Ludmila Ulehla.
He has performed extensively throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, the UK and the USA, in many of the world’s most renowned halls, including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Royal Festival Hall in London, and numerous other eminent venues.
As a composer, his works have been performed widely by soloists and ensembles around the world. In 2011 his orchestral work Ymarxa, commissioned by the Festival de Música de Canarias was premiered by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Charles Dutoit. In January 2024 the London Philharmonic Orchestra premiered Tajogaite, his second piano concerto with him as a soloist.
He has recorded two albums of Metaludios for piano with IBS, in 2017 and 2021. In 2015 he made a world premiere recording of Albéniz’ Iberia in High-Definition Video. In 2019 the Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) recorded a double CD with a cycle of seven orchestral works inspired in the Canary Islands, under the baton of maestro Eduardo Portal.
+ info: www.metaludios.com/bio
