Since the mid 70’s the composer Marco Antônio Guimarães kept research groups and developed strategies to open up new possibilities in various fronts in the musical field encompassing composition, pedagogy, arrangement techniques and timbre. He invented new ways of reading sheet music from regular playing cards and I-Ching sticks, pendulums, and also wrote music using different approaches such as geometrical figures, charts and colors. His tactics and techniques were applied over time in various institutions like UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais) and the Fundação de Educação Artística. The part of his creations that allowed the most exchanges and promoted other developments was, however, the research of ways to achieve new timbres and apply them to musical context: designing and crafting new musical instruments. Inspired by the experimental work of Walter Smetak, whose work he could observe at UFBA (Federal University of Bahia), Marco began by creating by something directly inspired in Walter`s creations and using simple materials: wood, gourd and strings. Soon he became interested in other non-organic materials like PVC and, electric circuits. He achieved fascinating timbres and thrived in Belo Horizonte’s artistic scene, being accompanied closely by many musicians, actors, and visual artists that played a fundamental role in the development of his inventions.
Invitations to participate in soundtracks for movies and theater did not take long to appear, and a group of instrumentalists began to take form, profoundly committed in developing techniques to take the best advantage of those instruments, that was the cradle of the UAKTI group. With the commitment of the group, the instruments and techniques grew and gained new horizons, being recognized for decades to come: the timbres were listened alongside voices such as Milton Nascimento and Paul Simon, heard in a composition of Philip Glass in the overture of the Cultural Olympics in Athens and were heard in concert halls and in soundtracks for dance made for “Grupo Corpo” and for various films. After the group ended in 2015 the instruments and Marcos whole workshop, the bench, the tools and additional material, were offered for sale and went through a period of uncertainty. That uncertainty came to an end via a bridge between the multi artist and researcher Júlia Baumfeld, at time Marco’s assistant, and the artist and researcher Alê Fonseca. Júlia was organising Marcos workshop in the groups headquarter in that period, which made possible to be in contact with the educational musical techniques and Marcos compositions, as well as with the instruments and their uncertain condition. Fearing that the instruments would be sold to foreigners and taken from Brazil, or worst, that they might not find a safe place, Alê proposed to buy and add them to his collection, given their undisputed importance for the history of Brazilian music . The idea was to keep the instruments safe and accessible to researchers and musicians, as much as available for research, execution and recording of their unique timbres. The initiative, however, didn’t have a defined place and the majority of the instruments were kept silenced in their transport cases. It was only in 2019 with the end of the construction of New Door Vintage Keys Studio that a space dedicated to research and musical recording, that the instruments, as well as the workshop, could be transferred to dedicated spaces, taken off their boxes and organized in an accessible way to research and recording, being once more heard and shared and, moreover, in way that had never been possible before. While they were used by UAKTI the instruments were not rarely on tour, being
taken to a studio only on occasions. While touring, the experimental process wasn’t the same as the beginning and various of Marcos` creations hadn’t seen that much research and were actually never been recorded. The transportation of the instruments is now a risk to their physical integrity, but for the first time in their history, they are in a space destined to musical research, designed for the recording of chamber music, and have the chance to fulfill theirs functions: to be played, researched, and recorded, providing new sonority qualities and forms to make and enjoy music.

If you are a researcher and would like to get in touch or obtain more information about the studio, feel free to drop, us a line.