High-Voltage is the debut album of the Helsinki-based, free improvising trio of Colombian cellist and multimedia artist Sergio Castrillón, who plays on prepared cello, Finnish electronics player and sound artist Taavi Kerikmä, and Argentine guitarist and sound designer Gonzalo Muruaga Olguin, who has recorded before with Castrillón (Live at Tenho, Nendo Dango, 2021). The album was recorded at Arts Lab Studio in Helsinki in 2023.
This trio attempts to match the rigorous architecture of European contemporary composition with the immediacy of free improvisation and the visceral pull of avant‑noise. It enjoys Castrillón’s experimental techniques, including modifications, different amplifications, and tunings, and his way of becoming an «action performer»; Kerikmäe’s experience of working with composers such as Pierre Boulez, Tristan Murail, Alessandro Solbiatti, Vinko Globokar, and Helena Tulve; and Muruaga’s electric guitar experiments with extended techniques, electronics, ambiosonics, and other effects, exploring sound as a spatial, physical, and collective phenomenon.
These pieces pulse with microscopic detail and explore, shape, and mould raw but complementary and resonant sounds, often seeking cathartic collisions. They are quite noisy, but equipped with healthy doses of risk-taking, surprising lyricism, and, obviously, high-voltage energy.
Eyal Hareuveni
Sergio Castrillón (prepared cello), Taavi Kerikmäe (electronics), Gon Muruaga (electric guitar)
