Biography

cropped-chrs-web1.jpgLive performance of ‘Computer Music is Dead’, Audio Art Festival, Krakow (Poland, 2012)
“The sublime and the uncertainty invade my actions. I hack the human perception of space-time as a form of civil disobedience and social auto-reorganization.”
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Chrs Galarreta (Lima, PE) is a musician, composer and installation artist living between France, The Netherlands and Peru. In his sound-based works he uses broken electrical appliances, hand-made audiovisual instruments, field streamings and -recordings, feedback systems, the induction of errors in the software-hardware, and musical instruments. He researches and highlights the acoustic qualities of bodies and spaces, and transduces imperceptible physical phenomena to an audible dimension –as electromagnetic fields, sub-aquatic sounds or otoacoustic emissions, among others.
Galarreta is very active in South- and Central America since 1995.  He presented his different projects in South America, Central America, Europe and Eurasia at amongst others: Luis Miroquesada Garland gallery, Lima; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC), Lima; Centre International d’Art et du Paysage, Île de Vassivière; DortYart, Dordrecht; TENT, Rotterdam; Institute de Sonology – Royal Conservatoire, The Hague; NCCA, Kaliningrad; WORM, Rotterdam; Qo2, Brussels; La Gaîté lyrique, Paris; Interpenetration Festival, Graz; Festival de Arte Sonoro Radar (now ‘Aural’), Mexico D.F.; Audio Art Festival, Krakow; Centro Cultural de España, Mexico-D.F.; Centro Cultural Conde Duque, Madrid; La Friche de Mai, Marseille; Festival Ecuatoriano de Música Contemporánea, Quito; and Festival Asimtria, Arequipa. He presented his lectures, sound walks and workshops ‘Electro-smog & Amplified Hearing’, ‘HiperOido: Invisible Sonic Debris and Continuity’, and ‘Electromagnetism: Attraction and Repulsion’ at amongst others: Poolloop Media Art Festival, Zurich; Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna; and University of Valparaiso, Valparaiso. In 2008 Galarreta won a first prize with his work ‘Amarus’ and was granted a residency at ‘Residencias Artísticas de Iberoamerica en el Centro Nacional de las Artes’, Mexico-D.F. (MX). In 2014 his feedback sound-light installation ‘Tupac Amarus’ was commissioned by Tsonami Festival, Valparaiso (CL). In 2017 Galarreta released the CD “Raw Field Recordings II : Electromagnetic Detritus” (label Aloardi, 2017), related to a composition that has been commissioned by documenta 14 radio ‘Every Time A Ear Di Soun’ (Athens-Kassel). It will be broadcasted worldwide by different radio stations between April and September 2017, as well as be part of the documenta 14 exhibition in Kassel, from June 2017 onwards.
Galarreta is founder and member of collective Aloardi –one of the first labels and independent platforms in South- and Central America since 1998, diffusing and producing experimental music, audiovisual art, sound interventions, internet radio broadcasts, acoustic research, an artist-in-residency, festivals, lectures, workshops and concerts (link portfolio). Aloardi celebrated their 10-years anniversary in 2008, organizing the third edition of the international festival of electronic and contemporary music CONTACTO, in the Cultural Centre of Spain –CCE, Lima. Galarreta co-curated the Aloardi Exchange Programme 2016, including amongst others the Aloardi Festival in WORM, Rotterdam (NL).
He published more than 100 productions and has been collaborating with artists, collectives and labels around the world such as: Microbio Records, Sub Rosa, APO33, Platoniq, Sonic Art Networks, Aloardi, Urbanoide Records, Fougère Musique, Ruido Horrible, Noxa Records, Andesground, Existenz, Felt Collective, Chipmusic, Biodata, Superspace Records, Worm Records, Ursonate, Zbigniew Karkowski, Jorge Castro (Cornucopia), N’alov, Leo Sabatto (Armenia), Pablo Reche, Anton Mobin, Dj Urine, David Kraapoola, Francisco Lopez, Dave Phillips, Muozik, Manuel Rocha Iturbide, Rogelio Sosa, Tsonami Arte Sonoro, Sebastian Ortiz, Gabriel Castillo and Ignacio Rus. In 2013 Galarreta developed his independent projects at the Institute of Sonology in the Royal Conservatoire and at Foundation Centrum –Villa K, in The Hague, The Netherlands. Galarreta also works under the name of several bands that he initiated and produced: DiosMeHaViolado (soloist project sometimes in collaboration with Claudia Machuca, Fabian Escalante, Yuri Gutierrez and Aldo Castillejos, 1994-1998), Evamuss (as soloist, 1997-2003), Azucena Kantrix (with Wilder Gonzales), Tica (with Fabiola Vasquez, 2005), Garrapata (with Gabriel Castillo and Rolando Apolo), Ninguna Ninfula (with Sabrina Melenotte, 2009), Miasma (with Sergio Sanchez, 2009), 50 Otages (with Mathieu Finisterre, Bernard Bruit and Julien Otavi, 2011), Invisible Architecture (with Janneke van der Putten, 2013–now), and Sajjra, Galarreta’s current solo harsh-pop project.