Horizonte ondulado illustrates the application of the creative thinking of Madrid composer José Manuel López López (1956), of a personal and suggestive poetic and sonic imagination, to the timbral and dynamic potential of percussion instruments and their implications in the temporal dimension of the musical material.

This album, performed by the Valencian percussionist Miquel Bernat and the Portuguese ensemble Drumming, is the upshot of many years’ collaboration between López López and Miquel Bernat, and reflects a process of creation in a close partnership which has enabled the composer to develop complex aesthetic aspects impossible to accomplish without direct, continuous work with the performer.

José Manuel López López was involved with the works, whose interpretative demands are within the grasp of very few, throughout the recording and post-production, conceived in stereo, 5.1 surround sound and 3D formats for sound installations.

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“My ears have recently been extensively tickled by the sound of percussion, courtesy of “Horizonte Ondulado” (Undulating Horizon), the latest release from the always interesting Neu label, exploring five works for percussion by Spanish composer José Manuel López López. (…) The music itself, performed by percussion group Drumming and Miquel Bernat, is highly engaging, generally concerned with structures demarcated by different kinds of behaviour or texture. (…) What makes “Haikus del mar” so immediate are the gear-shifts that unexpectedly occur throughout, abruptly turning glistening metal into accents and rising scales, and transforming the lightness of maracas and shakers into juddering waves of tam-tams and cymbals. The way the music practically turns to sand two-thirds of the way through, persisting as an entirely granular soundworld, is marvellous, as are the bass drum explosives set off towards the end. Fabulous stuff. (…) The highlight for me is the wonderfully-named “VibraZoyd” for vibraphone and electronics, in which the sound of the vibe is seamlessly integrated with the electronics to create gorgeous shimmering melodies that, depending on your perspective, either sound entirely acoustic or entirely electronic. Only when the instrument becomes more demonstrative, exercised via loud struck accents injected into the material, does the distinction between the two elements become more apparent, introducing a pervading sense of play, the electronics tracing lines and waves in the air like the effect of persistence of vision in the wake of sparks and flashes of light. As elsewhere, López López explores textural aspects here too, taking the music into a place of granular glitter clatter, but the conclusion is the epitome of pitch clarity, a lovely bowed vibe melody embellished with small glissandi on each note, a beautiful effect concluding in a reverberant coda of pitches, each one sounding like an intense beam of bright light. Utterly rapturous.”
5AGAINST4 / SIMON CUMMINGS

“Las fronteras entre el rigor científico y el lenguaje poético se disuelven en la música de José Manuel López López. Este hecho, que refleja con claridad una actitud tan reflexiva como sensible, expresa hondamente sus preocupaciones artísticas y personales dentro de una trayectoria dilatada y fiel a sus convicciones estéticas. Su lenguaje, que se deja impregnar a menudo de la expresión poética y pictórica, no sólo mira a través del microscopio cada partícula resonante, también se levanta hacia el vasto horizonte y observa la luz de la naturaleza. Cinco obras para percusión nos revelan el prodigio sonoro que esta edición contiene.”
REVISTA SCHERZO / MANUEL LUCA DE TENA

“Marqué par une réflexion sur le temps dans le sillage de Stockhausen et Elliott Carter, José Manuel López López explore dans une démarche aussi scientifique que poétique les relations entre l’harmonie et le timbre, réinventant une polyphonie où l’on trouve écho des polyphonies médiévales, africaines”
FRANCE MUSIQUE / ARNAUD MERLIN

“José Manuel López López se mantiene como una de las voces más originales y prestigiosas de la composición española actual.” Read more.
DIARIO DE SEVILLA / PABLO J. VAYÓN