Drummer Fede Isasiti w/ his band (Juan Bayon, Ernesto Jodos) | "El Hombre, el Espejo, el Niño"

Federico Isasti is a drummer, composer, improviser, and audiovisual software developer based in Buenos Aires. Having participated as a drummer and co-leader in more than 20 albums of creative music groups (Alan Plachta, Pía Hernández, Elias Stemeseder, Julián Mekler, NUDO, among others) and being internationally recognized by his musical work (Sales de Baño - Frist Price for Unreleased Jazz Music 2019 (Primer Premio a Música Inédita Jazz 2019) FNA, The Best Experimental Music on Bandcamp: May 2019), Federico doesn’t remain in one isolated discipline. In the field of movement and audiovisual arts he composed electronic music for a dance piece (Simetrías, winner of PIME grant,  UNSAM,  premiered in Barcelona, 2019), created audiovisual performances and art installations (El Retorno de una Hormiga, audio looping and live video processing, 2019; IRS - Imagen por Resonancia Sonora, April 2022) and works as a web programmer/interactive platforms developer (El Próximo Paso - WebDoc, 2021). After being awarded the Beca a la Creación scholarship in 2019 to compose an album for piano trio and digital media, Federico developed a set of electronic devices that interact with the musicians in real-time. He currently leads La Disidencias de las Máquinas, NUDO (duet with Mariano Sarra on piano) and Bruxante (drums & electronics solo set).

The group La Disidencia de las Máquinas was formed in 2018 and is a research project on the piano trio format. Starting from the jazz tradition, Federico composes pieces in which he manages to merge that language with gestures, timbres and techniques typical of contemporary music, giving rise to a unique voice. In the following years, the trio performed in the city of Buenos Aires on several occasions and in 2021 released Imago, their debut album on ears&eyes Records. In 2019, shortly before recording Imago, Federico was awarded the Beca a la Creación scholarship by the National Fund for the Arts from Argentina for his composition project for piano trio with the use of digital media. For this reason, in March 2020, three months after recording the first album, the trio started working on the second album. In December 2021, after an extensive period of research, composition and rehearsals, La Disidencia recorded El Hombre, el Espejo, el Niño (or “The Man, the Mirror, the Kid”), their second studio album and the first album for piano trio with digital media recorded in Argentina.

The distinctive characteristic of this album is the use of electronics applied to the jazz trio. Federico began to work with electronics in 2019 by pursuing a diploma in "Expanded Music" at the National University of San Martin and his previous knowledge of computer programming allowed him to quickly take advantage of the capabilities of Max/MSP (a programming language) to process instruments in real time. The overall device consists of piano, double bass, drums, a computer and seven audio channels that record in real time what the musicians play. Thus, Federico developed a series of devices that expand in real time both the timbral potential of each instrument and the interaction possibilities between musicians.

Although the album has seven tunes, it is conceived as a whole piece that is inspired by the urge to remember and by the active exercise of memory. Inside the album you can read: "Dedicated to all those people I am made of''. Based on this belief that one is, ultimately, others, that means, that one is largely fragments of what one takes from other people, Federico bases each piece on a very important person in his childhood and/or adolescence. Thus, the pieces take their inspiration from very diverse people and ideas: one's relationship with language (Ser Hablado, a Adriana), the different depths of fishing lines (Día de Pesca, a Horacio), the role of sensitivity in maturing (Sin Jamás Perder la Ternura, a Andrea), humor as a way of life (Boruro, a Rogelia), among others. On the other hand, unlike Imago, a work in which most of the pieces follow the classic form of jazz standards (exposition - improvisation - re-exposition), this album deals with more complex sections, forms and materials. In general there is no re-exposition of melodies and in some cases (as in Sin Jamás Perder la Ternura or Día de Pesca) the changes of section are cued or started by distortions generated by the electronics.