Álvaro Domene

“Álvaro Domene’s work is music’s future rendered in the present.” – Ian Chainey (Stereogum) “Domene has his own voice that is both in your face and laden with subtleties.” – Mike Borella (Avant Music News) “Domene continues his virtuosic exploration of the guitar as a tool to conjure soundscapes, induce pure thought via music, and invoke sonic mayhem.” – Ed Keller (Creative Director Venice Biennale) Álvaro Domene is a Madrid-born, New York based guitarist, composer, improviser, recording artist, audio engineer, sound designer, and educator operating at the convergence of various styles of contemporary creative music. His sound and compositions are influenced by the avant-garde jazz and western contemporary classical traditions, as well as metal, electronic music, fractal maths, astronomy, and autonomy based politics. He has performed and taught internationally, and recently worked with Joe McPhee, Karl Berger, Elliott Sharp, Vinny Golia, Henry Kaiser, Álvaro Pérez, Briggan Krauss, Jon Irabagon, Michaël Attias, Jim Black, Ben Goldberg, Michael Bisio, Sam Newsome, Colin Marston, Mike Pride, Ches Smith, Scott Amendola, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Mat Maneri, Brandon López, Tim Dahl, Weasel Walter, Patrick Shiroishi, and Billy Martin, among many others. He has released over 45 albums as a leader and/or co-leader and is an active performer in New York’s fertile jazz and experimental music scene, leading various groups in addition to working with numerous artists, including the multimedia theater show SpaceTime (with astrophysicist Luke Keller and poet David González, under direction by the late Lenard Petit), which recently headlined shows at The Egg in Albany and the historic Bardavon Opera House Theatre in Poughkeepsie, New York, the McCallum Theatre in California, and collaborated with the Carl Sagan Center for Research at the SETI Institute. Domene has also participated in conferences such as Cosmic Brains at Medialab-Matadero in Madrid, discussing the potential to leverage synthetic cognition in the pursuit of collective emancipation. “Álvaro Domene is an utterly uncompromising, fearless presence on his seven-string instrument contextualized within creative processing and experimental techniques. His work yields outcomes ranging from the tranquil and calm to raging, volcanic intensity.” – Anil Prasad (Innerviews.org) His work has been positively reviewed by Jazzwise, The Wire, Stereogum, New York City Jazz Record, All About Jazz, RTVE Spain, Brooklyn Rail, Guitar Moderne, El Intruso, Pop Matters, Angry Metal Guy, Tomajazz, The Free Jazz Blog and many other specialized media outlets like Avant Music News, on which a recent release, “Synaptic Self” by the trio dMu, was included in the list of “Best Albums of 2016”. Álvaro’s first solo record, “The Compass”, was a “Recommended New Release” on The New York City Jazz Record, and Avant Music News featured it on their “Best Albums of 2018” list. He won the Conlon Nancarrow Award for Excellence in Music for his 2022 album Not Arbitrary, which was described as “the alien response to Voyager 1’s Golden Record”. “Domene sounds like a frightful demolition team.” – Paul Acquaro (Free Jazz Blog) “Domene’s sound sculptures pose questions of emotion, spirit, intellect, the cosmos- and in the end, these questions of sound invite us to act in some way. The sword hangs upon all our walls and in ringing metal it leads to one destination in unison. A ‘land of song’, puissance, voices raised in glorious clamor. In unison against a falling power.” – Ed Keller (aum.aumstudio.org) In addition, Álvaro co-runs Iluso Records, an independent record label dedicated to support and disseminate creative new music, also offers audio mixing and mastering services and sound design, and is the artistic director at the Singularity Music Series in Kingston, New York. “Disarmingly Alien.” – Stereogum