Briones, Alejandro Franco

Born in 1987, Mexican experimental composer. He experiments with sound to develop alternative ways to structure and perceive music/sound art. One of the major focal points at his music is the interactions and the multilateral flow of information that occur between the composer, the code/score, the instrumentalists, and the audience.

His music has been commissioned notably by Volta, /*VIVO*/, WhiteNoise.Fest, and Odiuresión, and performed by musicians such as Alexander Bruck, Natalia Pérez, Carlos Maldonado, Remi Álvarez, CEPROMUSIC, Maria Lipkau, Dagna Sadkowska, Kwartludium, DZiK Quartet, and many more. It has also been featured in Dresden as part of the Enclaves Sitiados series, Lamour Goes South in Stockholm, BSeite Jetztkultur in Mannheim, and Kielce Philharmonic following a composition residency programme with Kwartludium (2015). In Warsaw, Briones also performed a live coding show and presented a work for string quartet performed by the DZiK Quartet. In 2013, together with Thomas Sánchez Lengeling, he developed an audiovisual installation called Resortes, commissioned by the prestigious MUTEK México festival. Also in 2013, he won 1st Prize at the Sony–Forward creativity contest.

During his residency in Europe in 2014, he developed two projects with Agnieszka Bronowska (University of Heidelberg): Enthalpy : Entropy as well as a project of audio visual installations that involved the sound representation of protein structure and dynamics with sound synthesis; the latter project awaits for funding to be finalised and exhibited while Enthalpy : Entropy was performed at the international Live Performers Meeting in Eindhoven; both were awarded with a Prince Claus Fund mobility grant. His works have also been featured at a lecture panel by the Arditti Quartet at the New Music Festival in Monterrey in 2014 and DZiK Quartet directed by Dagna Sadkowska in Warsaw in 2015.

Briones is also active as an events curator and organiser, including monthly showcases at the Jardín Sonoro of the National Sound Archive in Mexico City. With other young composers he has founded a music creation and sound art collective called WhiteNoise, which organises contemporary and experimental music festivals, including in Mexico City in 2012 and 2014.

As part of the Kontakte Art Festival, his multichannel fixed media piece was presented in 2015 in the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. A sound installation for the cultural centre Casa del Lago in Mexico City was presented as a part of the curatorial project of Francisco Rivas in October 2015. He has contributed to the book Cuando la orquesta desafina: prácticas experimentales alrededor del sonido en México: 1994–2015. His secondary school guide to music (written in collaboration with Rummi Bretón) is about to be published by the government of Morelos, México.

Selected works: Resortes, interactive audiovisual installation (with Thomas Sánchez Lengeling, 2013), Enthalpy : Entropy, audiovisual installation (with Agnieszka Bronowska, 2014), Arrasado por la oscuridad, multimedia installation (2014), Crepitarse en el sin-fondo del tiempo, string quartet (2014), Improv(1)@DZIK [Vln,SC], improvisation session (with Dagna Sadkowska, 2015), Díptico: Acabar por olvidarlo todo for harp and electronics (2015), Is there anything outside my home’s inside? for clarinet (2016).