Bugang River in the Philippines is situated in the north of Panay Island in the town of Pandan Antique, and is known to be the cleanest river inlet in the Philippines. People often swim, tube, relax, and enjoy its crystal clear waters. Pasig River in the Philippines, flows along the capital city and is historical in the development of the city Manila, on Luzon Island, and is one of the most polluted rivers in the Philippines. Although there have been attempts to clean this river over the years, it’s garbage filled and polluted waters still line the communities on the banks of the river, making it dangerous and near impossible to use the water as a resource for cleaning, washing, swimming. Both rivers are integral and important to the communities that live along the banks.

Parallels and Confluence: Bugang and Pasig Rivers is a love story between these 2 rivers and written in the style of a Kundiman, a Filipino love song structure. 

Composed for piano quintet featuring Arneis Quartet and pianist Alex Peh, the performance and score also includes dual rivers to be placed in quad in the performance space, and mixed in stereo for the album release, each distinctly flowing in its own speaker at points in the score, mirroring the difference in the 2 rivers. 

The river sounds you hear were field recorded by Ibarra and multi-instrumentalist, sound engineer, and field recordist Jake Landau on multiple trips to the Ganges River in India and Sikkim. The Ganges at different points, mirrors the Bugang and Pasig rivers in its purity and pollution, where at the source the glacial runoff is clear and clean, near the sink it is heavily polluted. 

The live river mix was played by Landau. 

Parallels and Confluence was commissioned by the Arneis Quartet as part of their Kaisahan Initiative and premiered on 7 April, 2024 at First Church Boston. This album is a live recording of the premiere concert. 

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This album also includes Laktawan at Tumalon, a duet piece commissioned by Daniel Louis Doña and composed by Susie Ibarra for viola and kulintang. Meaning literally Skip and Jump, this composition plays with the feeling and lightness of skipping and jumping across stones as a child in streams for Ibarra. It also alludes to the folkloric Filipino story that kulintang gongs originated in 14th century from a princess in Mindanao, Philippines pulling stones out of the water and playing them in pitches. These stones were then emulated in metal gongs. 

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