An authentic inquiry is always guided by the desire to bring together two opposing notions, to combine two approaches that at first don't permit such reconciliation. This is also true for the searching that characterizes Luis Codera Puzo's work, for it too attempts to satisfy two categorical yet opposing demands: it must on the one hand strive for the greatest integration, for within music it's especially the relations, the requisite connections and the insoluble nexus between the individual elements that must dominate. On the other hand music must exclude all vagaries and obfuscations, contrasts must be clear and unmistakable. In short, music must be governed by assertiveness. These two premises are so hard to combine because the categorical imperative of integration ultimately means making differences fluid ― which is exactly what the second imperative prohibits. In this space of tension between integration and differentiation, between the continuous and the discrete, is where Codera Puzo's music unfolds. 

At the start of his artistic development the composer from Barcelona translated the described dichotomy into a strong emphasis on the temporal dimension of music. Thus does Scratching make the temporal ordering of the musical material into the primary axis, around which secondary aspects like timbre or sound quality orbit. In subsequent works this directive of the temporal cedes the center in favor of a new compositional approach. In his new mode Codera Puzo seeks to represent the opposing terms of unity and multiplicity as manifestations of one and the same concept. This idea already reveals itself in Kaolinite [Al₂Si₂O₅(OH)₄] Quartet: on the metaphorical premise provided by the clay type Kaolinite, the work explores the plasticity of music as an essential reverse of authentic fixity. This concept is consolidated in Codera Puzo's Aproximación a lo indivisible, his most mature work to date. Based on three texts about plurality in various languages, the work seeks to communicate the simple and undivided through multiplicity and heterogeneity. The title deserves attention not only for what it says about the piece, but also for what it reveals about the more general character of Luis Codera Puzo's musical intention: driven and animated by a ceaseless searching and constant re-evaluation of one's own fundamental attitudes it nevertheless remains as close as possible to its indivisible core.

José María Sánchez de León
Translation: Philipp Blume