ENS
Ensamble Nacional del Sur
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Ensamble Nacional del Sur is the project of pianist and composer Oscar Edelstein, whose albums and live events often feature a wide variety of guest musicians from a range of musical backgrounds.
Oscar Edelstein is known for his originality and inventiveness, and is often viewed as leading the musical avant-garde from Latin America. First formed in 1997, Ensamble Nacional del Sur (ENS for short) have been a significant part of the music scene in Buenos Aires for many years, playing at times within Edelstein's operatic production, and as invited group on many stages and music festivals across the capital, ranging from important main stages, theatres and arts centres; to cult music clubs and jazz venues. Performances:
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Photos taken during soundcheck at Sala Caras y Caretas, Buenos Aires ©Max Edelstein
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With Edelstein as conductor and pianist, the current core formation of the ENS who have been training and playing together for the last nine years is Axel Lastra (Piano & Keyboards), Leonardo Salzano (Electric Guitar), Pablo Torterolo (Drums), and Mauro Zannoli (Keyboards and Processing).
Within different concerts Oscar Edelstein will often include invited artists and invited musicians to add to the sound colour of the main group. Multimedia artist, Deborah Claire Procter (Wales, UK) has been invited as a vocalist on many occasions, and Martín Proscia who is a saxophonist and researcher into specialist techniques of multi-phonics in the saxophone as well as being part of a saxophone quartet. |
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For the recent disc, 'Estudios sobre la Grilla Acústica, Libro I' (Studies for the Acoustic Grid, Book I) two highly respected Argentinean musicians and colleagues of Edelstein were invited by him to record a track for the disc, called 'El Río de Juan Laurentino' (The River of Juan Laurentino); Ernesto Jodos - a pianist famous on the Latin American jazz scene; and the clarinetist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Marcelo Moguilevsky, equally loved in many of the intense musical scenes of Buenos Aires for his solo projects as for his ensembles.
Other guest musicians have also taken part live including Carlos Adriano Herrera (Bassoon), Soko Rodrigo (Flute), and Federico Linari (Harmonica). |
TEAM
Sound Engineer: Daniel Hernandez ENS Chief Technicians: Mauro Zannoli & Axel Lastra Graphic Design: Gisela Formoso ENS Psychic Assistant: Emanuel Bonnier Over the years the ENS have gained a strong reputation in Argentina and Brasil, presenting their works in important places such as the Teatro Nacional (Brasilia); Goethe-Institut, Teatro San Martín, Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, Teatro Payró; El Galpón del Abasto, La Trastienda, Casa de la Cultura del FNA, Centro Nacional de la Música, Biblioteca Nacional - Auditorio Jorge Luis Borges, Sala Caras y Caretas (Buenos Aires); Auditorio Nicolás Cassullo (Quilmes); Teatro Argentino (La Plata); Centro Parque España (Rosario); Teatro 3 de Febrero (Paraná); Auditorio Bustelo (Mendoza); and Auditorio del CePIA (Córdoba).
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PRESS
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The headlines from the numerous articles about Oscar Edelstein's work serve in some way to trace his musical preoccupations and the impact it has on audiences, for example; “Between Poetry and Technology”, “Music without concessions”, “Music in 6 channels”, “Damned Stereo”, “Music improvisation and Poetry”, “Laboratory of Music”, “Music with the Pulse of Blood”, “Sounds in Space”, “Going from Poetry to Opera”, “An Original adventure”, “Magma in Movement”, “A Journey of sound”, “A Distinctive Sound”, “Taking The Musicians Out Of Their Boxes”, “A Space o Glimpse the Forefront of Music”; “Offering a Provocative and Unsettling Aesthetic Experience”, “A Composer At The Edges Of The Established System”, “On Repetition and Destiny” and so on, to mention but a few.
Throughout his career, Oscar Edelstein has cultivated a strong connection with the written word and the media. This has led to extensive press coverage of his music in the form of countless reviews, interviews and articles in the most important newspapers of Argentina and Latin America, and in research journals such as the editorial Gutleut Verlag (Frankfurt) in their edition "Insert: 10 Co-operations Between Arts & Sciences” because of his long term collaboration with the physicist Manuel Eguía on there project “The Acoustic Grid” which is Edelstein’s concept for exploring spatiality in music. In his passion for the diffusion and development of new music, he along with Carla Fonseca and Federico Monjeau, was one of the key co-founders of the music journal “Lulu- Revista de Teorías y Técnicas Musicales." This specialist music magazine, published between 1991 and 1992, was the first journal to speak about contemporary music and made a unique contribution to the theoretical diffusion of the contemporary arts in Argentina during the 1990’s. |
LINKS TO RECENT PRESS COVERAGE
ENS offer a provative & unsettling aesthetic experience (Carlos Marín, El Diario) A distinctive sound (Federico Monjeau, Clarín) A journey of sound (Diego Fischerman, Pagina 12) A New & Very Malleable Instrument (Abel Gilbert, Revista Otra Parte) A space to glimpse the forefront of music (Carlos Marín, El Diario) An Original Adventure (Diego Fischerman, Pagina 12) Música ficción y tribalismo (Federico Monjeau, Clarín) Sounds in Space: Electro-acoustic & Quadraphonic (La Nación) |
Archive
Sacred Theory of the Acoustic Space - Book I - 2000
Mario Castelli - Acoustic Piano
Mariano Cura - Keyboards
Pablo Siroti - Percussion
Gonzalo Serrano - Bass & Doublebass
Matías Gonzalez Goytia - Drums
Nicolás Varchausky - Electric Guitar
Mariano Cura - Keyboards
Pablo Siroti - Percussion
Gonzalo Serrano - Bass & Doublebass
Matías Gonzalez Goytia - Drums
Nicolás Varchausky - Electric Guitar
El Hecho (The Fact) - 1998
Composition - Oscar Edelstein
A musical drama inspired by the "Six Events" of Juan Carlos Paz
Mario Castelli - Acoustic Piano
Mariano Cura - Keyboards
Pablo Siroti - Percussion
Gonzalo Serrano - Bass & Doublebass
Matías Gonzalez Goytia - Drums
Nicolás Varchausky - Electric Guitar
Julio Cardoso - Scenography
Paula Ortega, Rodolfo Demarco, Poli Bontas - Actors
Julián Teubal - Images
A musical drama inspired by the "Six Events" of Juan Carlos Paz
Mario Castelli - Acoustic Piano
Mariano Cura - Keyboards
Pablo Siroti - Percussion
Gonzalo Serrano - Bass & Doublebass
Matías Gonzalez Goytia - Drums
Nicolás Varchausky - Electric Guitar
Julio Cardoso - Scenography
Paula Ortega, Rodolfo Demarco, Poli Bontas - Actors
Julián Teubal - Images
To develop this new musical battle between creation and technology [Edelstein] can count on an invincible instrumental battalion, the ENS... The choice of instruments can easily be associated to the world of rock, but it is only a sound- colour because the group is impelled by Edelstein to explore zones that go much further, for example than the advanced experience of Robert Fripp, the leader of King Crimson. Martín Liut - La Nacion
One of the experiences most original and difficult to pigeonhole in the current musical scene.
Federico Monjeau, Clarin
The work was made in memory of Juan Carlos Paz (the composer who first brought ideas of the Second Vienna School to Argentina). It was inspired by the graphic design of Paz’ score, Seis eventos [Six Events] - his last work that was never musically realised. Edelstein says, “I was interested in the moment when Paz chose, instead of the precise path, the labyrinth. I wanted to create from that act, from that ”fact.“ This was the first work to pay homage to the famous Argentine composer.
Klange Klange Urutaú (1997)
Mario Castelli - Acoustic Piano
Mariano Cura - Keyboards
Pablo Siroti - Percussion
Gonzalo Serrano - Bass & Doublebass
Matías Gonzalez Goytia - Drums
Nicolás Varchausky - Electric Guitar
Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill - Voice
Fernando Pessoa - Text
Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, Experimenta ´97.
Mariano Cura - Keyboards
Pablo Siroti - Percussion
Gonzalo Serrano - Bass & Doublebass
Matías Gonzalez Goytia - Drums
Nicolás Varchausky - Electric Guitar
Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill - Voice
Fernando Pessoa - Text
Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas, Experimenta ´97.
…an hour of music without interruptions, a great statement with deeply connected and differentiated sections, where the interest does not weaken for an instant. Federico Monjeau, Clarín
[Edelstein's] obsession for complex sonorous textures and a careful control on the form are present, but in the frame of an instrumental formation "electrified" (guitar and electric bass, drums) that, together with the sonorities distorsivas shot from the digital recording, bring it momentarily closer to a rock or free-jazz aesthetics...if something defines Edelstein's musical production it is the monumental and complex character of his discourse. The multiplicity of readings and approaches that his work allows, makes that the mere description of his components can only partially reflect his sonorous universe... In an hour of music without pause for breath and without concessions the work of the members of the Ensamble Nacional del Sur was really outstanding
Martín Liut, La Nación
