Good Reverberations: Argentine Artists at the ’Sco
by Kari Wethington

Above all else, this semester has been confusing. It’s safe to say that at least a few students were confused Monday night as two-thirds of the Argentine experimental trio Reynols filled the Cat in the Cream with their studies in lo-fi drone. This was confusion in the best sense of the word, beginning with the audience’s fruitless attempts at making sense of a stage adorned with a neon green poster of a man in sunglasses, a couple of amplifiers and hunting bows. The only thing that cleared up as the group took the stage in matching aviator sunglasses was that the “bows” were the Reynols’ instruments of choice for the night. The performance was captivating and welcome proof that there are still musicians who aren’t afraid to take risks.

Invited to Oberlin as part of the Emerging Artists Series, Alan Courtis and Roberto Conlazo are touring the country for 20 days without their third member, percussionist Miguel Tomasín. “We decided to bring his presence,” Courtis said, referring to the photograph of Tomasín hanging behind them and the recordings of his percussion and vocals over which the other two improvised on Monday night.

Tomasín, who has Down Syndrome, serves as an inspiration for the band. The group leads workshops and music classes for children and adults with Down Syndrome. For many children, especially those with Down Syndrome or similar disabilities, Courtis said, Tomasín serves as a role model in a society that chooses its role models undemocratically. “If you were born with Down Syndrome, you will never be Brad Pitt,” Courtis said, adding that their goals in teaching music are “more related to the reality of people.” Conlazo noted that Tomasín frequently says that “he’s interested in the taste, not in the cake.” It doesn’t matter if the cake is lemon pie or cheesecake or invisible cake or visible cake or huge or a little one, the only important thing is the taste.
This philosophy was clear in Monday’s performance. The bow-like instruments, which Tomasín (in a language only he understands) calls electric pecalirtes created an eerie sound that became more erratic with feedback and wandering tones. The audience couldn’t tell what to expect, providing a meditative look into experimental music.
“We decided to bring something that no one else had ever played so there’s obviously lots of risk to play with those things,” Courtis said. “Every day we’re playing with different amplifiers. These instruments are not as predictable as the guitars.”

More than anything else, Reynols are experimenting with the limits of music. “You can’t work within marketing parameters,” Courtis said. “They’re very silly, very superficial. Heavy metal is just a label. You will have some heavy metal bands that are not heavy metal bands at all. If you want to be heavy metal you have to be heavy metal 24 hours a day.”
And they practice what they preach: in 1998 they joined Argentina’s daily health show, “Buenas Tardes Salud” (“Good Afternoon Health”). “It’s not like we betrayed our principles,” Courtis said about the show.
“Because if you are in an avant-garde band or an experimental band, what is more experimental than being on a health program at 3 o’ clock in the afternoon? For us that is more experimental…I mean, what is experimental music? To do something no one has made before. When you know the results, that’s not very experimental. When you are risking something every time, that’s experimental.”

The group stands by the idea that anything in the environment can be made into music, can be made into something interesting. This idea permeates the workshops they’ve led during their week-long stay at Oberlin. During one workshop they had the students create and play imaginary instruments and were delighted with the far-fetched results.

Reynols definitely pushes beyond what many modern artists wouldn’t challenge. Forgetting their instruments at a show earlier this month, Courtis and Conlazo substituted plastic bags for their live show. “In Argentina obviously many people hated us for years,” Courtis said. “In the first year we had problems with the police. We made a tour in the public squares and people were not prepared for that.” The police interrupted their first public square session, but, “we went again and we just plugged the guitars into a pumpkin — a very special amplifier.”
As artists who draw inspiration from everything in the world around them and constantly search for new venues of expression — they make their own films and are starting on plans for a book — Reynols are truly original. “You don’t have to follow the models if the models are not right or not interesting,” Courtis said. “You can invent and construct your own models and in a sense that is part of our work, too.”