Isabel Benito Gutierrez is a Spanish composer living in the North West of England. Her music is focused on multidisciplinarity and collaboration, with particular interest in visual arts. Isabel has worked with different poets, painters and digital artist, such as Roland Keogh, Ali Barker, Èlia Navarro, Georgi Gill, Andrew Turner, among others. Isabel has studied composition at ESMuC (Barcelona, Spain), the Unviersity of Liverpool and she is currently finishing her PhD at the RNCM. Her music has been performed by ensemble 10/10, Line upon Line percussion, BCN216, Nina Whiteman, Jason Alder, Agustín Fernández Rubio, etc. Besides, she has participated in Liverpool Lightnight, Open Circuit, New Music Manchester Festival, among others.
What has creating art meant to you over the last year?
As a composer, creating audiovisual works has developed my interest in improvisation and graphic scores. After some months of lockdown, and having collaborated remotely with one of the painters I had worked with in the past, I decided to start painting pieces myself due to the difficulty of co-working during the COVID19 pandemic. Creating “painting-scores” and painting while other people improvise has added a new perspective to my music, feeling freer and more expressive. Also, performers have a more interesting influence in my “painting” pieces – e.g. the recording of “Quasi uno Specchio” (2020) by saxophonist Joan Martí-Frasquier.
Quasi uno Specchio
Acrylic on cardboard
29.7 x 42cm
Impro 1
Acrylic on cardboard
29.7 x 42cm
Impro 2
Acrylic on cardboard
29.7 x 42cm