Based on interpretations arising from the study of sound as an acoustic phenomenon, and on the ways of conceiving and giving meaning to the experience of listening.

The archaeologists of science and technology have traced the human act of observing and interpreting the movement of celestial bodies since ancient times. The artifacts, tools, resources, and knowledge that have accompanied humanity in its cosmic adventure maintain a historical relationship with the cultural context in which they are situated.

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Heliófonos is a series of sound instruments that Diego Liedo builds from the premise of interpreting the Sun. In his constructive process, he interrelates a wide range of interests and studies—astronomy, physics, mechanics, electricity, electronics, programming—with materials from nature, through crafts and trades such as luthiery, carpentry, and blacksmithing. Diego manages to align his interest in scientific languages and methodologies, and the use and development of technologies, with the exploration of musical harmony and experimental sound arts.

In his workspace, he dignifies technologies from all eras, assembled with the care of a luthier. Discovering the mechanical, acoustic, or aesthetic virtues of a piece of reclaimed wood holds a joy and significance comparable to incorporating into a programming language data derived from solar phenomena flares, solar dust, radiation aimed at listening to the Sun.

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Diapasones, Solares, and Geocentro are the three instruments percussive, wind, and electronic respectively that, from an aural dimension, summon the Sun in this space. In the first, Diego Liedo uses tuning forks crafted in the note G, which are being microtonally tuned with solar energy through an electro-polishing process, from the spring equinox of 2024 over the course of a year, intervening in the passage of months and seasonal periods. Solares is an organ that interprets, in G chords, parameters that space agencies measure from the solar star. And Geocentro is an instrument sensitive to variations of sunlight in space, demanding the full attention of the listener in relation to their position with respect to the Sun in the present.

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Immersed in the apparent silence of his research space, Diego Liedo invites us to listen. Like old sea wolves or ancient navigators who once took the Sun as their ultimate guide or as a kind of metronome he symbolically invites us to contemplate that radiant existence, its rhythms, evolution, influence, and resonance. In the experience of listening, the burning matter of the Sun is kindled within consciousness.

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Marcela Armas