In 2009, True Negatives was commissioned by Asdrúbal, an experimental ensemble part of the Bogotá-based collective La Distritofónica, a group dedicated to expanding new music beyond folkloric and nationalist labels.
Asdrúbal, like other self-identified experimental groups, had moments of timbral explorations, rhythmic experimentation, and contact with electronic mediums. They consciously resisted being categorized as a group that claims folkloric or nationalistic traditions. For them, the “regional” was a transnational concept, the experience of inhabiting a living urban space saturated with multiple cultural dynamics from various territories, all practiced simultaneously.
Critic Luis Daniel Vega (last.fm) captures their aesthetic:
“Listening to their music, one can glimpse opposing worlds: the countryside and the city, rage and calm, introspection and celebration. Alongside this peculiar diatribe, Asdrúbal’s sound is visceral, as it conveys human journeys and experiences through well-placed dissonances that never abandon silence. It is, to say the least, a kind of muted schizophrenia—one that seems necessary to bring us closer to the fears and certainties of contemporary humanity.”
Crucially, the commission emerged from a conscious act of resistance. As Acosta recounts, the collective was being stereotyped by the market and critics as "nueva música colombiana"—a label they vehemently rejected.
The need to distance themselves from certain labels and to show that Asdrúbal represented more than just the standard of "Colombian music" led the ensemble to seek alternatives. Acosta explains in the interview that this is how the ensemble decided to reach out to him, as one of the local composers whose work resonated with theirs, with the intention of creating a transnational expression rather than just "new Colombian music." This act of "delinking" from market-driven, nationalist labels is precisely what Vázquez would frame as the creation of a "maroon space" that is a fugitive ground from the categorizing and commodifying impulses of modernity. By commissioning Rodolfo Acosta, a composer known for his transnational experimentalism rather than folkloric exploration, Asdrúbal reinforced this stance of autonomy.
"El colectivo de La Distritofónica y particularmente Asdrúbal... lo rechazaron de inmediato, no somos... nuevos jazz colombianos, no somos nuevas músicas colombianas, básicamente, déjenos en paz... [Esto] tiene que ver con el mercadeo de bienes culturales, y el rol del capitalismo... y los procesos de reinvención permanente de imaginarios nacionales." (The collective... rejected it immediately. We are not new Colombian jazz, we are not new Colombian music, basically, leave us alone... This has to do with the marketing of cultural goods, and the role of capitalism... and the processes of permanent reinvention of national imaginaries.)
Rodolfo Acosta
To understand the piece and its context, it is essential also to recognize the composer's background. (The following information is drawn from Acosta’s professional website and other publicly available online sources). Rodolfo Acosta is a Colombian composer, conductor, improviser, teacher, and researcher. His peripatetic studies took him to Colombia, Uruguay, France, the U.S.A., Mexico, and the Netherlands, where he learn from renowned composers such as Coriún Aharonián, Graciela Paraskevaídis, Klaus Huber, and Brian Ferneyhough. With over 100 compositions performed in more than 30 countries, his work has earned him national and international recognition. Acosta is a founding member of the Colombian Contemporary Music Circle (CCMC), founder and director of Ensamble CG, and founder of EMCA, the longest-running student contemporary music ensemble in Colombia. He has been an active improviser for decades, heading experimental collectives like Tangram and the Bogotá Improvisers’ Orchestra (B.O.I.). For thirty years, he has also worked as a cultural manager, professor, and lecturer across the Americas, Europe, and Asia, with a significant tenure at the Facultad de Artes ASAB in Bogotá. This profile paints a picture of a composer deeply embedded in both local practice and transnational networks, whose work naturally resists easy categorization.