Atacama Sonata was composed for Chilean artists Alberto Almarza (flute) and Luz Manriquez (piano), who played its premiere in April 2001 at The Juilliard School. The sonata in three movements—Capricho, Nocturno, Volante—evokes intriguing visions of varicolored desert moods, and is named after Chile’s Atacama Desert. The lively, jazzy outer movements frame the quiescent nocturne, to which Almarza and Manriquez added the dedication “in memory of the missing” to honor the victims of political violence who disappeared in the desert in the latter part of the 20th century.

The flute sonata consists of two lively and colorful outer movements in the composer's trademark modally-inflected, slightly astringent tonal vocabulary, rhythmically incisive with incessant changes of meter, framing an eerily beautiful slow movement, 'in memory of the missing' which utilises breath-tones and multiphonics to—literally—breathtaking effect.
— Records International

Atacama Sonata, for flute and piano, is in three movements: I is a sprightly capriccio with darting shards of flute over a choppy but driving array of quartal and quintal piano harmonies, II is a lengthy improvisation..., III a whirligig toccata with emphatic syncopations.
— American Record Guide