Fernando Garnero’s Defence | Artistic Presentation

Concert of Ensemble L’imaginaire
11 May 2025, 18:00. Location: Red Room, IAC

Mutations in the Composable

This concert with Ensemble L’imaginaire forms a central part of the artistic defence of my doctoral research, which explores composition not simply as the structuring of sound, but as the construction of a dynamic space—the composable—where musical ideas emerge through interaction with instruments, spatial configurations, and performance practices.

This event also celebrates a 13-year artistic collaboration with Ensemble L’imaginaire, whose unique approach to performance and experimentation has profoundly shaped my compositional thinking. Over the years, I have composed four works for the ensemble—three of which will be performed tonight—each commissioned and developed in close dialogue with its members. These collaborations have served as vital laboratories for testing and refining the artistic methods at the heart of this research.
The rest of the programme includes works for tape composed during the PhD period, as well as Campo Amniótico, a piece that exemplifies the integration of hybrid instruments and feedback systems. These works reflect core artistic methods discussed in the thesis, including sonic translation, symbolic granulation, instrumental feedback, and the design of hybrid instruments within multidimensional dispositives.

Drawing from theoretical perspectives such as Francisco Varela’s enactive cognition, Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s experimental systems, and Horacio Vaggione’s multi-scale approach to compositional time, the research frames composition as a method of inquiry—a way of producing knowledge through artistic action, friction, and experimentation.

Each piece presented this evening functions as a case study, articulating its own composable space—one shaped by tension between control and contingency, abstraction and materiality. This concert is both a performance and a demonstration of the central ideas of the research: that to compose is to think through sound, and that music can serve not only as aesthetic expression but as a mode of knowledge-making.

Ensemble L’Imaginaire

… new music, bold and refined works, constant exploration, emotion, sound, space—a meeting point between the works, the audience, and the performers…

L’Imaginaire is a contemporary chamber music ensemble committed to continually rethinking how music is approached, through innovative concerts, commissions of new works, and a refined pedagogical practice. Artistic rigour and the transmission of musical emotion are at the heart of L’Imaginaire’s mission.

Fernando Garnero is an Argentinian-Italian composer, co-director of Swiss ensemble Vortex, Guest Artist by BIFEM (2019-2021), and former Resident at the French Academy in Rome, Villa Medici (2020-21).
His works were played by Contrechamps, Vortex, Accroche Note, Phoenix, Proton, Repertorio Zero, Cairn, Lucilin, Distractfold, Wet Ink, L’imaginaire, Françoise Rivalland, Donatienne Michel-Dansac, on festivals such as Biennale de Venezia, Musica, Huddersfield, Archipel, Unerhoerte Musik Berlin, Mixtur, Warsaw Autumn and commissioned by Biennale de Venezia, Royaumont, SUISA, Mika Salabert, Radio France, French Ministry of Culture, & Teatro Colón, among many others.

PROGRAMME

Fernando Garnero
Ragtime/Avoidances III (2015)*
For Flute, Saxophone, Piano & Tape

Fernando Garnero
Clown Control Study N°4: ModerNihilism
For Stereo Tape

Fernando Garnero
Clown Control Study N°1: BarroQueer
For Stereo Tape

Fernando Garnero
Trans-étude #1 (2019)*
For Flute, Saxophone, Toy Piano & Tape

Fernando Garnero
Practical Guide to Holes: Fall, Rise, Death & Resurrection (2020) 
For Stereo Tape

Fernando Garnero
piano, piano, piano, piano (2020)
Ecco Cycle #1
For Stereo Tape

Fernando Garnero
Campo amniótico (2020/21) 
For two performers, a self-regulated feedback system, synthetic voices & live electronics.

* Swedish Premieres

Ensemble l’Imaginaire
Keiko Murakami, Flutes
Wychariy Cruz, Saxophones
Carolina Santiago Martínez, Piano & Toy Piano

............

Fernando Garnero, Electronics
Jonas Jönsson, Sound engineer

Public defence: 12 May 2025, at 10:00. Location: Red Room
Title: “Mutations in the Composable: Compositional Practice as a Space of Experimentation, Tension, and Uncertainty"
Location: Inter Arts Center, Red Room, 4th floor, Bergsgatan 29, Malmö
Zoom: The defence is open to the public and it is possible to participate via Zoom. The link will be announced soon.
Opponent: Professor Andrea Valle, University of Turin
Main supervisor: Kent Olofsson
Second supervisor: Michael Edward Edgerton

Read more about Fernando's disputation here.

Read and download Fernando Garnero's disputation here - portal.research.lu.se

Read more about Fernando Garnero in the Lund University Research Portal – portal.research.lu.se