Mambo a la Braque (1990) 3'02"
Like words made out of cutting letters from a newspaper, I have used Mambo a la Braque (Braque-like Mambo) short musical segments which come from the well known mambo Caballo Negro by composer Damaso Perez Prado to whom this short piece pays homage. I have reassembled them into a sound mosaic and used a few other sounds to 'glue' them together. My aim was to create a sort of cubist music, or put in other words, a mambo of my own invention made out of mambo cuttings. -JA

Javier Alvarez [ additional link] (Mexico City, Mexico, 1956)
has lived in London (UK) since 1982, and devotes his time to composition, performance and research. He is also active as a professor, teaching at the John Lill Music Centre at the University of Hertfordshire, where he is the senior composition lecturer. International honours have included the 1987 ICEM prize, awarded to Papalati for piano and computer, and prizes at the Bourges Competition (1985-87-89) and at the Prix Ars Electronica (1988,93 and 95). In 1993 he was awarded an honorary fellowship by the Mexican Endowment for the Arts and Culture for his contribution to Mexican music.