Playing with Travelling Ideas and Practices in Music: On the Creative Processes of the Grupo de Experimentación Musical (Buenos Aires, 1969–70)

This article offers an in-depth analysis of the creative activity of the Grupo de Experimentación Musical (GEM) within the Argentine musical scene of the late 1960s. Led by Gerardo Gandini, GEM emerged as a collective of composers who explored the timbral potential of both traditional instruments and everyday objects. The study examines the group’s methodology of guided and free improvisation, paying particular attention to its productive reception of foreign improvisation ensembles. Drawing on cultural history, reception theory, and interviews, the article shows how GEM’s young composers reinterpreted avant-garde techniques from European and North American traditions. It also considers the individual contributions of the members and their reception of figures such as Larry Austin, Earle Brown, John Cage, Luis de Pablo, Edgard Varèse, and Iannis Xenakis. The article concludes that GEM’s strategies were rooted in avant-garde compositional procedures and in dialogue with contemporary improvisational practices abroad.