Pájaro contra el borde de la noche (Bird against the edge of the night) by Luis Naón

“Pájaro contra el borde de la noche” (Bird against the edge of the night) for cello, ensemble and electronics.

Even though the title suggests a precise image, in this work there is no program or narration. It is rather the situation of danger and contrast which is essential to me and which was at the origin of the piece.

The whole work was inspired by this image, from the choice of instruments to their arrangement on stage, their shaping by the electronics, and the construction of each musical entity.

We live in a world in which contrasts are increasingly exacerbated and caricatured. The sharing of “likes” on Facebook clashes violently with the reality, and the sad beauty of glittering sequins is a reaction against a dehumanization which is becoming part of our daily lives.

I refuse this simplistic, binary vision. I believe that something else exists: a confrontation, a fight, not just in the outer world but also a world within our inner selves.  Sometimes, we have to defend the bird of our own freedom against our darkest thoughts.

To me, freedom, beauty, and light are concrete words related to this metaphor of “the bird against the edge of the night”. Art could also be in the list, when its free expression and internal necessities - free of the constraints of fashion, compromise, and demagoguery – confront, like each man, their own night.

Luis Naón

Juan Sebastián Delgado, cello

McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble

Guillaume Bourgogne, conductor

Victor Beresi, painting

Recorded live in Montreal in 2017. Commissioned by Radio France, Ensamble Carin and Juan Sebastian Delgado.