Simon Garcia writes: 'Mali-Malist is a word-game mixing Mali and minimalist. I wrote this piece for a "Festival au Desert, Presenza dAfrica" in 2012 where I played with the women singers group Tartit from Mali. A civil war had broken out in Mali and with this piece I wanted to pay tribute to the Malian people. I wrote it as a kind of war documentary, as the music for a TV news programme. The feel of the music is minimalism and chill-out, but with a reflective message. The slow glissandos for double bass 3 (bars 41-48) describe the sound of the war siren.

The traditional music of Mali is repetitive music, and over this idea I wrote a piece with a minimalist feel. I used others elements of Mali´s music such as a monotone and rythmic bass line. It´s a high energy piece where I try to make the audience feel what Mali´s people feel when the war siren starts to sound.'

Mali-malist for double bass quartet was premiered at the "Festival au Desert, Presenza dAfrica" in Florence in July 2012 by Alberto Bocini, Anita Mazzantini, Marco Martelli and Simon Garcia. It received its UK premiere at Wells Cathedral School on 8 June 2013 by David Heyes, Nic Lum, Joe Prindl, Josie Jobbins and Pete-Li D'Oyley.

This new edition was created by the composer in 2013 for Liz Anderson and the Wells Cello Ensemble at Wells Cathedral School (Somerset, UK).

Bassist and composer Simon Garcia was born in Mugardos (Spain) in 1977 and graduated in double bass from the Conservatorio Superior of Salamanca. He has worked as a double bassist in the Royal Orchestra of Galicia, having also performed in many orchestras throughout Spain, and is the bassist in the Symphony Wind Orchestra of A. Coruna. He has collaborated with many musicians and ensembles, particularly in the field of contemporary music, and has recorded and performed on many commercial recordings and for television and radio broadcasts.

Simon Garcia has composed more than twenty works for double bass, ranging from two to six players, alongside transcriptions of these pieces for various chamber ensembles. His music has been performed in Mexico, Venezuela, Uruguay, Denmark, Spain, Japan, Italy, Austria, Germany, Canada, USA and UK by The Bass Gang, Bass Instinct and Il Quint-etto amongst others, and some of his music was used as teaching material in the 2011 ISB Year of Collaborative Music.

Simon Garcia's music is lively, jazzy and rhythmic with great forward momentum and drive. Accessible for players and audiences alike, he writes colourful music of distinction and energy, employing the entire range of the double bass.