This cycle for voice, clarinet and string quartet, the sole work on this recording, has as its title the most explicit reference in Alberto Posadas’s work so far to the shadow, and to darkness. Nevertheless, such allusions also abound in the rest of his oeuvre: though whether more apparent or more hidden, they are often somber, veiled, obscure. Throughout the cycle, the metaphorical presiding role of shadow and darkness goes beyond purely visual connotations. The ‘beauty of sound shadows’- to borrow a phrase from the celebrated volume of homage to Gerard Grisey edited by Danielle Cohen-Levinas- sublimates the metaphor into an acoustic component running through the whole cycle. Alberto Posadas was born in Valladolid in 1967, where he received his first musical training. Later he moved to Madrid to study composition with Francisco Guerrero. His work has explored the relationship between music and nature, mathematics, and other artistic disciplines. For years he has researched what he calls ‘micro-instrumentation,’ a concept based on the idea of obtaining musical material from the resources offered by the acoustic of the instruments at a micro level.
