Juan Blanco – Cirkus Toccata
From Juan Blanco – Música Electroacústica
Released on Areito, 1986, Cuba

It would be extremely wrong to think that dictatorial regimes prevent any form of musical creativity. Even Cuba‘s hard regime allowed some musicians a complete freedom of experimentation (as long as the music was not openly against the regime, of course…). Amongst them was the late Juan Blanco, Cuba‘s pioneer of electroacoustic music. Though his relationship with Batista and Castro‘s regimes has not always been easy, Juan Blanco found the time and the necessary freedom to compose more than 160 musical works, using an electroacoustic studio granted by the State.

Cirkus Toccata reflects the nationalist ambitions of Blanco‘s compositions : full of electronic elements, Blanco‘s music always highlights elements taken from by Cuba‘s folkloric music, and, in the case of this composition, most specifically the rhythm and the percussions used in Cuban traditional music.

This song – as well as Juan Blanco‘s music – is far from being as arid as one may think, considering the fact that its main purposes are almost of a scientific nature. In fact, Cirkus Toccata slowly hypnotizes us and set our spirit to a relaxed mood.