5.5 Questions for Carmina Escobar

What led you to the work you’re making now?

For a while, I’ve been really interested in the phenomenon of resonance, and most of my personal work has been oriented towards exploring this physical event both conceptually and perceptually. I think this is because of the nature of my primordial instrument, the voice, and its production through an utter bodily experience .

Who are some other musicians and/or artists you admire and why?

I tend to admire the people I have worked with or crossed paths with artistically – their commitment to their work and the honesty that they produce it with. Right off the bat, with that idea in mind I can think of Fernando Vigueras, Scott Cazan, Ute Wassermann, Carole Kim, Juan Jose Rivas, Oguri, Don McLeod, Scott Collins. This is such a hard question because lot of people get unmentioned or forgotten.

What are you listening to these days?

  • David Tudor  » Three Works for Live Electronics: Pulsers, Untitled  Phonemes
  • Yellow Swan » Portable Dunes
  • Laurie Anderson » Big Science
  • Ute Wassermann» A Retrospective Tribute
  • The Partially Examined Life podcast.

How does location influence your approach to a performance?

Location is a major part of my performance practice. Not only the acoustics of the space, but the context of it informs a lot of how I approach it, how I experience it, and how I influence the experience of the listeners/audience. Every place is very particular and presents different challenges. I like that a space is an invitation to engage differently every time.

What is next for you?

Right now I am doing a lot of prepping to teach at CalArts for the upcoming school year. I am very excited for this opportunity to teach in such a great environment, because it presents itself as an extension of my own practice and research. I have an album release with Abolipop records on October of a piece of mine called “En el espacio del cuerpo.” I have some interesting projects with the ensemble I work with in Mexico – [liminar] – throughout the fall. One of them includes the premier of works in Mexico by the composer Christian Wolff with the composer himself. I’m also working on the hacking of some toy birds to build an installation for the Gamble House as part of a Machine Project intervention of the place along with 52 other artists in September.

Please pick a favorite or stand out clip/track from our archives and tell us why you chose it:

Well, of course I was looking for vocal works on the archives and found this really beautiful piece: sound. at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook: Mural. I wish the whole piece was online, not just fragments, but I can tell it was wonderful by the snips of it.