Trigos: Guitar Works, Vol. 1

The Mexican-American composer, Juan Trigos, has developed the concept of 'abstract folklore', a process by which he assimilates various literary and musical traditions in his method of composition. This first volume of his guitar works shows the process in all it's breadth, not least in the large-scale Twelve Variations and Fugue on the Folia de Espana, where old-world dances meet syncopated new-world rhythms. The Partita, based on the principle of variation, also evokes and alludes to dance, while the virtuosic and expressive Ricercare de Camara VII ingeniously explores the fusion of guitar and percussion.