Álvaro Ayuso
Percussion · Live Electronics · Sound Art
Coming from a classical percussion background, my first explorations with electronics emerged through tape in relation to existing repertoire: a tape for Elliott Carter's Figment V reinforcing its rhythmic modulations, and a layered version of Bach's Sarabande and its Double from the lute suite, where both textures interact (from 1:46).
A piece for tom, pedal and MIDI controller inspired by John Cage's ideas of indeterminacy and performer agency. The electronic system introduces controlled unpredictability, allowing the performer to influence the structure and evolution of the piece in real time.
For vibraphone and electronics, inspired by Stockhausen's Mantra and its use of ring modulation. The idea is translated to the vibraphone, exploring how modulation can transform the instrument's sound and harmonic character.
A hybrid setup combining percussion and live electronics — percussion instruments, MIDI controllers and custom Max for Live devices interacting through live processing in Ableton. It has become a central tool in my practice, used both for improvisation and across other projects, and I keep expanding it as I learn new tools.
Original soundtrack for an experimental documentary by filmmaker Alma Tejada about a cave in La Rioja (Spain). The film explores the textures and atmosphere of the space, focusing on the relationship between landscape, geology and sound; the music was created to accompany its visual rhythm.
A duo with trumpet player Carmen Llena focused on experimental performance and improvisation. The project moves between composed material and open forms, letting sound emerge through interaction and listening. Drawing from contemporary music, improvisation and jazz, we use live electronics to expand the acoustic instruments and allow real-time transformations.
I am a co-founder of the sound-creation collective Páramo 26005, together with Adrián Fuentes and Juls Ruiz. Within the project I perform as a musician and contribute to the compositional development of the pieces, as well as to the sonic conception of the work and the integration of live electronics.
A duo focused on free improvisation, working with my hybrid percussion and electronics setup and Tibor's modular synthesis system, generally moving towards slower, atmospheric and drone-oriented sound worlds. We also created SoL, a performance project combining sound, light and distorted visual imagery.
Álvaro Ayuso (Logroño, 2000) is a percussionist and sound artist based in Bern. His work starts from acoustic percussion and extends into live electronics and installation, combining digital tools, circuits and self-built devices as though they were a single instrument. He is drawn to sound at an almost physical level: how it is generated and what can be altered from within. Drawing on the memory and landscape of the rural surroundings he comes from, he builds his own programmes — writing the music and, at times, making the instruments — such as Piñas, platos y patches and El silencio de Valvanera.
He has worked with the group Frames Percussion and with composers including Magnus Lindberg, Matthew Shlomowitz and Gary Berger; he has premiered works by Altin Volaj, María Amor, Tibor Kovács and Yido Chae, and has taken part as a performer in two editions of the Joan Guinjoan International Composition Prize. His work has been presented at Festival Actual (Logroño), the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya (Barcelona), Les Jardins Musicaux (Cernier) and the Troubadour (London). His projects include the collective Páramo 26005, which he co-founded, the duo Marianito Rojo with trumpeter Carmen Llena, and a free improvisation duo with composer Tibor Kovács. Trained at ESMUC and at the Hochschule der Künste Bern, where he is pursuing a Master in Contemporary Arts Practice, he is a recipient of the Albert Hänggi Scholarship.
Álvaro Ayuso (Logroño, 2000) is a percussionist and sound artist based in Bern. His work starts from acoustic percussion and extends into live electronics and installation, combining digital tools, circuits and self-built devices as though they were a single instrument. He is drawn to sound at an almost physical level: how it is generated, what happens inside it and what can be altered from within. In his work, material and narrative coexist. Drawing on the memory and landscape of the rural surroundings he comes from, he brings together object-making and audiovisual media to turn listening into a fully narrative experience.
This twofold attention takes shape in programmes he builds from end to end, composing for them and at times making his own instruments. Piñas, platos y patches traces different forms of relationship between human beings and technology, from the organic object to digital synthesis, with works commissioned for the project and one of his own, SaintLeo, for percussion, live electronics and video. Along the same lines, in November he premieres El silencio de Valvanera, a concert-performance on the cultural heritage of La Rioja, for which he received the Beca Inicia of the Logroño City Council.
As a performer he has worked with the group Frames Percussion (Barcelona) and with composers including Magnus Lindberg, Matthew Shlomowitz, Gary Berger and Luis Tabuenca. He has premiered works by Altin Volaj, María Amor, Tibor Kovács, Lluís Pérez Villegas and Yido Chae, and has taken part in two editions of the Joan Guinjoan International Composition Prize as a member of the ensemble. He also writes the electronics for other composers' pieces, such as Altin Volaj's Echoes of the Past, and composed the theme music for the podcast Invertebrados.
He is co-founder of the collective Páramo 26005 and a regular free improviser: with trumpeter Carmen Llena he forms the duo Marianito Rojo, and with composer Tibor Kovács a duo of hybrid percussion and modular synthesis oriented towards slow, drone-like textures. He is also part of the percussion collective Percu-Rioja, develops Desmayus, a personal live-looping project blending techno, hip-hop and flamenco from a performative perspective, and plays percussion in Vivace, a traditional music group from La Rioja.
His work has been presented at festivals and events including Festival Actual, Festival Barullo and Nos Vamos de Pira (Logroño), the Ágora International Percussion Festival (Jávea), Forum3's Kolumbianische Nacht and the 4th Berner Beratungstagung at the BFH (Bern), À la pièce Dance Festival (Biel) and Les Jardins Musicaux (Cernier); and in venues such as the Palau de la Música Catalana, the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya and the Fundació Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona), La Lonja Art Gallery (Logroño), La Guarida (Bern) and the Troubadour (London).
He studied at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC) and completed a Master in Percussion Performance at the Hochschule der Künste Bern (HKB) under Brian Archinal; he is currently pursuing a second Master in Contemporary Arts Practice at the same institution, specialising in sound arts. He is a member of PAKT Bern, the city's new music network, and a recipient of the Albert Hänggi Foundation Scholarship.
