Matadero Madrid center for contemporary creation

From 1 October to 31 December 2021

Clara Brea

During the course of the residency Clara will develop an urban sequel to her album Wetland, which will end with an “Ode to the Sounds of the City”

Clara Brea (Madrid,1989) is the beneficiary of the 3rd Call of the Residency devoted to Women in Electronic Music.

This artist develops her work at the intersections between sound art, phonography and electronic music. Her interest in field recordings stems from her desire to connect her musical practices to other matters of an ecological and social nature, using the acoustic environment as a tool through which to transmit her concerns for and attachment to the world that surrounds us. Her album Wetland (a product of the Eufonic Lopati residency and self-released on her Bandcamp) is an audiovisual work made in collaboration with Elena Brea, in which she depicts and reimagines the soundscape of the Ebro delta. The work has been performed live in different events such as CALMA, the UPNA Arts and Science Festival, DC Listening Lounge (Smithsonian Museum), Eufonic, and Sense (London). Her latest work was recorded at La Casa Encendida and published as a Resonant Memory of the En Pausa Festival.

With the premises of listening to, capturing the soundscape of Madrid, and integrating the listener as part of the creative process, Clara will develop an urban sequel to her album Wetland during the course of her residency. The culmination of the work will be an “Ode to the Sounds of the City”, based on field recordings and improvisation involving elements of electronic music and their electroacoustic processing. Featuring collaborations by Juan Peralta, Jordi Wheeler and María Chavez, the work will materialise in different mutations: An album, installations and immersive acoustic experiences.

In the words of the artist, the purpose of the residency is “to defend listening as a possible tool for reflection and change” and “to turn soundscapes into a source of inspiration”. After a search that led her to retreat to a rural location, Clara insists that “even in the forests we can still hear the noise of the Anthropocene that threatens to flood everything”. She intends to use her stay at Matadero to “depict and reimagine the sounds of Madrid, immersing the listener in the roar of its gears to listen to the evolution of the sounds of the city”.

In collaboration with

Radio 3