Cuando el Fuego Suena

Composition

In this composition, Ana María Romano guides us through the struggles of her inner world, intertwined with the effects of the political and social context on her ways of listening. «Cuando el fuego suena» was composed in 2022 and is part of a larger project called Perspectivas Sonoras for the Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras.

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I began conceptualizing this piece at the confluence of different aspects of daily life, using reflections on chrononormativity from the perspective of a female, non-binary, gender-fluid, or gender non-conforming body as a starting point.

This reflection on chrononormativity emerged from some experiences during my explorations in soundscape, comparing urban sound environments (where I live and work) at different times of the day and the relationship between sounds and the social dynamics we have built around various daily activities.

The work «Cuando el fuego suena» (When the Fire Sounds) was created at a time when different situations converged, impacting my sleep: the pandemic as something external and uncontrollable; the sociopolitical context of my country, which led us to the brink of a more profound abyss; and menopause, also uncontrollable and very intimate, though with a social component regarding control over women’s bodies, something seldom spoken of but that has given rise to prejudices and hostile behaviors toward women.

Furthermore, the composition process positions the body, mind, spirit, and existence in temporal dimensions comparable to sleep, relating to the disruption of productive necessity and its link to time normativity. However, there is another facet: creative activity is also subjected to chrononormativity, as nighttime (the time of «non-work») becomes the period to engage in activities outside work, the profitable (the productive). Thus, according to the pre-established social dynamics and moments of daily productive life, we end up «stealing» time from sleep to navigate and construct our internal times without perishing in the attempt.

I enjoy exploring soundscapes because they reveal who we are in multiple dimensions: social, historical, spiritual, religious, philosophical, economic, political, anthropological, etc.

I like knowing I am part of a soundscape because it implies being present. The soundscape is active and dynamic because we are part of it, and it changes with our presence and absence. After all, it affects us, and because we transform simultaneously, every sound of life occurs there.

Listening is presence; when I listen to you, it is because I have decided to do so. Listening is present; thus, my invitation is to always listen to ourselves. Electroacoustic work created for dissemination spaces such as radio, the internet, and concerts.

More Works by Ana María Romano

ANA MARÍA ROMANO G. - Pequeñas Voces - (2017 / 2020) von VIAJERO INMÓVIL EX]P[RIMENTAL

Producer: Ana María Romano
Label: Viajero Experimental

En esta composición, Ana María Romano nos guía a través de las luchas de su mundo interior, entrelazadas con los efectos del contexto político y social en sus formas de escuchar. «Cuando el fuego suena» fue compuesta en 2022 y es parte de un proyecto más amplio llamado Perspectivas Sonoras para el Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras.

Esta pieza la empecé a pensar en la confluencia de diferentes aspectos de la vida cotidiana tomando como punto de partida reflexiones sobre la crononormatividad desde la experiencia de un cuerpo femenino o no binario o de género fluido o de género no conforme.

Esta reflexión alrededor de la crononormatividad surgió en algunas experiencias con mis indagaciones en el paisaje sonoro, al comparar los entornos sonoros urbanos (donde vivo y trabajo) en diferentes momentos del día y la relación entre sonoridades y dinámicas sociales que hemos construido en torno a las diferentes actividades de la vida cotidiana.

La obra «Cuando el fuego suena» fue creada justo en un momento en el que diferentes situaciones convergían y desplegaban diferentes afectaciones en mi sueño: la pandemia, como algo externo e incontrolable; el contexto sociopolítico de mi país que nos llevó a la posibilidad de caer en un abismo aún más profundo; la menopausia, también incontrolable y muy íntima, aunque también con un componente social en cuanto al control sobre el cuerpo de las mujeres, algo de lo que no se habla pero que ha dado lugar a prejuicios y comportamientos hostiles hacia las mujeres.

Por otra parte, el proceso mismo de composición dispone el cuerpo, la mente, el espíritu, la existencia, a dimensiones temporales que pueden ser comparables a las del sueño y que pueden relacionarse con la ruptura de la necesidad productiva y su vínculo con la normatividad horaria. Sin embargo, hay también otra faceta, y es que al mismo tiempo la actividad creativa está sometida a una crononormatividad en la medida en que el espacio de la noche (del «no» trabajo) es el tiempo para hacer lo que está fuera del trabajo, lo lucrativo (lo productivo). Entonces, según la dinámica social preestablecida como los momentos de la vida productiva «cotidiana», terminamos «robándole» tiempo al sueño para navegar y construir nuestros tiempos internos sin morir en el intento.

Me gusta indagar en los paisajes sonoros porque nos cuentan sobre lo que somos en múltiples dimensiones: social, histórica, espiritual, religiosa, filosófica, económica, política, antropológica, etc.

Me gusta saberme parte de un paisaje sonoro porque eso implica estar presente. El paisaje sonoro es activo – dinámico – porque hacemos parte de él, porque cambia con nuestra presencia y con nuestra ausencia, porque nos afecta, porque nos transformamos en simultaneidad, porque cada sonido de la vida ocurre allí.

La escucha es presencia, cuando te escucho es porque ha sido mi decisión hacerlo. La escucha es presente y por eso mi invitación es a escuchar/nos siempre. Obra electroacústica creada para espacios de difusión como radio, internet y conciertos.

This composition is part of the virtual exhibition «Norient City Sounds: Bogotá», curated and edited by Luisa Uribe

Biography

Ana María Romano is an interdisciplinary composer, sound artist, teacher, curator, and Colombian researcher. Since its foundation in 2009, she promotes the inclusion of women and dissidents in experimental music in Latin America through various spaces such as the En Tiempo Real Festival, the feminist platform Tiempo Real, and the Microcircuits platform. Additionally, she is a co-founder of the Soundscapers-Latin America platform and the Latin American Women Composers Network, among other initiatives. Follow her on Instagram, Facebook, X, YouTube, and SoundCloud.

Published on August 22, 2024

Last updated on August 30, 2024

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Norient City Sounds: Bogotá

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A route for Bogotá (photo: Juliana Acero).

Beyond Boom Bap

Short Essay

by Santiago Cembrano

Santiago Cembrano traces the development of hip hop in the rainy mountains of Bogotá, Colombia. He explores how the genre is growing past the classicist tradition to make room for other rap subgenres that mirror a diverse city that, as its music, never stops moving. This article analyzes the boom bap paradigm that has reigned in Bogotá since the mid-1990s, and highlights the main artists that are injecting oxygen into the bloodline of local hip hop.

encuentre una versión en español de este texto aquí

From the speaker of a teenager pedaling towards the hills; on a bus of tired people that becomes a stage for a freestyle session; inside a trendy bar–in all of these ways you can listen to rap the same as in a big concert, during a morning workout in the park, or on a house party’s playlist. In 2024, Bogotá is a city with a fragmented soundtrack that includes, among others, techno, cumbia, and punk. Since the mid-1990s, however, that soundtrack sounds more and more like rap.

Back then, New York – thick Avirex jackets, Timberland boots, jazz samples, and deep rhymes – was the epicenter of hip hop. Bogotá adopted its cold sound, named after the onomatopoeia of the knock of the kick drum (boom), followed by the sharp cut of the snare (bap). One example is «La Bolsa», a song included in La Etnnia’s1 third album, Criminología (1999). As icy and dirty as the city, it narrates police violence on the margins of Bogotá. It sounds like rain, altitude, and murderous looks.

Make It Rain Like It’s Bogotá: Tradition and Evolution

Hailing from Bogotá, El Sonido de Javier, Diana Avella, Ali Aka Mind, and Jam Block Jr have forged their paths within boom bap during the 21^st century. These artists and so many others have painted rich portraits that mirror the city’s ebbs and flows, and have cemented boom bap as the main paradigm of Bogotá’s rap. This was part of a bigger process that took place in the 1990s: all around the world, from Germany to Venezuela, boom bap was established as the main face of hip hop, with New York’s holy scriptures as the main source. What was new in the boom bap development worldwide was not the sound itself, but the stories that were told through it that bonded different neighborhoods as one.

And yet, this century, as boom bap deepened its chokehold on Bogotá, it lost its dominance to Atlanta’s trap, and London’s drill. The latter, actually, has conquered the New York streets as well as the mainstream and has risen as the new sound of the city. Meanwhile, New Jersey’s Jersey club looks like the next big thing. Thus, even on the East Coast, as Biggie said, «things done changed». That’s great–change is what keeps hip hop alive. So what happened in Bogotá as hip hop opened up in the rest of the world?

A Better Tomorrow: New Directions in Bogotá’s Hip Hop

Boom bap arrived as a trend, but it stopped being that many years ago. By now, East Coast classicism is part of Bogotá’s musical DNA. Even more, boom bap is synonymous with keeping it real and not selling out. But the oxygen that will keep Bogotá’s hip hop alive in the future lies in diversity, the same that characterizes this multicultural city.

Since the beginning of this century, there have been possibilities for change and movement, some of them underestimated because they didn’t fit tradition. In 2005, Jiggy Drama and Benny Bajo incorporated cues from Southern rap in their album Undergroove, while HazloPablito and Angel Dumile built the bases for Bogotá’s trap during the last seven years. What’s more: if we consider only 2023, the melting pot of PERRO ROMANTICO, by Rap Bang Club and the afrobeats inflections in «Chévere» by Ruzto – who in the mid-2000s founded Aerophon, a Bogotá’s boom bap institution – broadened Bogotá’s rap. Even Bogotá’s finest N. Hardem, a rapper’s rapper, brings some new flavors in his new record Mal de Altura, as Penyair, El Muisca, El Kalvo, inDiazo, and Pocket Tincho have done recently.

By the way: maybe it is not a coincidence that the women dominating the hip hop landscape in the U.S. and U.K. are mainly doing it outside of hip hop. In Bogotá, for women like Delfina Dib, Kei Linch, and Lee Eye, boom bap has been just one of many sonic possibilities. Breaking this doctrine perhaps is a step towards breaking bigger things, and challenging other boundaries.

I’m thirty years old. I remember when hip hop was frowned upon in Bogotá by the mainstream audiences: it was not seen as proper music, it was not in the same realm as, for example, rock. Slowly but surely, boom bap, and boom bap heads, took it to the top. Long live boom bap, as much a part of Bogotá as Monserrate or heavy traffic. And now that we are here, and our culture is fifty years old, we must remember that it remains young because of its never-ending journey. If I was reluctant at first, now I understand that a new generation setting itself apart from old times with new jams is the most hip hop thing there is.

Playlist «Boom Bap Bogotano»

1. Founding group of Colombian rap.

This essay is part of the virtual exhibition «Norient City Sounds: Bogotá», curated and edited by Luisa Uribe.