Carlos Cotallo Solares is a Spanish composer and improviser based in Philadelphia. His work deals with indeterminism, musical quotation, meter and tempo polyphony, and the relationship between music and language. His pieces often focus on a single concept or technique that is interpreted in multiple ways.

As an improviser, he performs on electric guitar and pedalboard, exploring effects not as a way to modify the guitar's sound but as instruments on their own. He is a member of the free-improvisation trio Wombat, with Justin Comer (saxophone) and Will Yager (double bass) and an active participant in the Philadelphia improvisation scene, performing both solo and in groups.

His music has been performed in festivals in the US (Oh My Ears Festival, MOXsonic, Seamus National Conference, NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, SCI National Conference, National Student Electronic Music Event, Electronic Music Midwest) Germany (International Summer Courses for New Music Darmstadt, Mehrklang, Crescendo), Spain (Ciclo de Música Contemporánea Museo Vostell Malpartida, Ciclo de Música Actual), and Finland (Time of Music). He has worked with JACK Quartet, handwerk, Accroche Note, Duo Contour, Black Forest Percussion Group, POING, Ensemble Kuraia, Ensemble Container, Ensemble Chronophonie, and Ensemble Alarm.

His audiovisual collaborations with the filmmaker Timothy David Orme have been presented in film festivals in the US, Colombia, the UK, and Greece. Since 2020, he has produced guitar and pedal demos for premierguitar.com and he releases and performs experimental rock music under the name Black Stork.

In 2019, Carlos finished his PhD in composition at the University of Iowa, previously completing a Master's degree at the Universität der Künste in Berlin and a Bachelor's degree at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg.

© 2020 Carlos Cotallo Solares