For those unaware, The Zarabanda Variations (releasing August 7th, 2026) is a uniquely combined chapbook and musical digital album that explores the historical and present syncretism of Baroque music in 12 original songs, dances, and poems.

A group of musicians convened by violinist/composer Keir GoGwilt, and in collaboration with acclaimed poet Edgar Garcia, work at the intersection of free improvisation, microtonal jazz and contemporary classical to bend the historical rhythms, rhymes and resonances of the Baroque.

These artists traverse the colonial histories of the zarabanda dance in this unique multimedia collage of contemporary folkloric and improvised traditions, personal reflections, and new compositions.

The zarabanda was a fast, rhythmic, and highly sensual dance with origin stories in pre-Columbian, Arab, and African traditions, which via the Caribbean became wildly popular in the streets of Spain. It was considered so provocative that it was temporarily banned.

By the Baroque period, it evolved into the sarabande — a slower, elegant, and stately dance popular in classical suites.

1. “Monday ~ Friday, January 11” (by Edgar Garcia & Zarabanda Variations)
2. “Baroque Concerto” (by Keir GoGwilt)
3. “Ortiz Sobre la Folia” (by Keir GoGwilt, feat. Wilfrido Terrazas)
4. “Saturday ~ Wednesday, November 28” (by Edgar Garcia & Zarabanda Variations)
5. “Otra Llorona” (by Vicente Atria)
6. “Humiliation of the Victors” (by Keir GoGwilt, feat. Kyle Motl & Wilfrido Terrazas)
7. “Saturday ~ Wednesday, October 17” (by Edgar Garcia & Zarabanda Variations)
8. “Matachín” (by Keir GoGwilt, feat. Alec Goldfarb & Wilfrido Terrazas)
9. “Monday ~ Friday, November 23” (by Edgar Garcia & Zarabanda Variations)
10. “Plegaria” (by Wilfrido Terrazas, feat. Mariana Flores Bucio)
11. “Wednesday ~ Sunday, December 30” (by Edgar Garcia & Zarabanda Variations)
12. “Tonada Americana” (by Vicente Atria)

This group of visionary composers, improvisers, and performers, inspired by musical histories of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century New Spain, or present-day Mexico and the United States, open their new recording on the jaggedly organic “Monday ~ Friday, January 11” and the industrially scratchy “Baroque Concerto,” the elegant “Ortiz Sobre la Folia,” the ambiently sculpted, breathy “Saturday ~ Wednesday, November 28” and both the emotive “Otra Llorona” and the atmospheric “Humiliation of the Victors.”

Along next is the impassioned “Saturday ~ Wednesday, October 17” and a fiddle-tastic jaunt within “Matachín” and they are in turn backed by the cultured “Monday ~ Friday, November 23,” the veritably ethereal “Plegaria,” the set rounding out on the furtively pensive musical spiritings within “Wednesday ~ Sunday, December 30,” coming to a close on the classically delightful rhythms of “Tonada Americana.”

Official Website

www.kgogwilt.com