Bermuda's Royal Gazette: Adam Brown says Leo Brouwer's 'Landscape with Bells' is 'a sound painting...of cowbells'

[Leo Brouwer]

The Royal Gazette Online

Bermuda

From Latin America, to jazz and modern classical music, Adam Brown does it all

Published Jun 1, 2011

"Adam Brown at the Bermuda Guitar Festival 2011

St Andrew’s Church Friday’ May 27"

“A brilliant performance of Cuban Leo Brouwer’s (1939 - ) ‘Landscape with Bells’ started the second half. Adam explained that this was a sound painting in which Brouwer was conveying the random sounds of cow bells in the meadows around his home. It’s quite an experience.

"Brouwer brings all sorts of percussive and unusual techniques into the piece, including re-tuning the guitar, left hand plucking and harmonics. The result is a continually changing and shifting sound, sometimes building and then fading, perfectly conveying the utter peacefulness of random sounds of animals as they move and graze in the landscape." [The Afro-Cuban composer, guitarist and conductor Leo Brouwer (b. 1939) is profiled at AfriClassical.com]