Catalan Music February 2012

CATALAN MUSIC FEBRUARY 2012

Hello and welcome to Catalan Music’s February 2012 podcast featuring all the latest news and events on a Catalan music scene which is creatively booming. Catalan Music is the brand name specially created by the ICEC (The Catalan Institute of Cultural Enterprises) for a wide variety of music produced in Catalonia, such as Pop, Jazz, Folk, World Music or Electronic, with a stress on international projection.

We begin this month’s podcast by congratulating acclaimed pianist and composer Albert Guinovart (http://www.albertguinovart.com/), who arranged the soundtrack of the film ‘The Artist'. This French production has been distinguished with a Golden Globe Award, which is a highly prestigious acknowledgement for the Catalan musician. And we’ve just been informed that the soundtrack has also been nominated for the Oscar awards. Albert Guinovart, with twenty-five years of experience under his belt composing music for orchestra, theatre and cinema, has worked with world-renowned artists such as Barbara Hendricks, Victoria de los Ángeles and Jaume Aragall.

The first new album we’re featuring this month is by the always interesting and unpredictable folk-rock singer-songwriter Paul Fuster, (http://www.myspace.com/speedy46) son of the eminent Catalan cardiologist Valentí Fuster. Paul was born and grew up in the United States, between Minnesota and New York. Towards the end of the 1990s, he came to visit Catalonia, the land of his parents and grandparents, and decided to stay here for a spell and devote himself to music. His first album, '36 Weeks' presented a repertoire in English with the aesthetic influences of grunge. Then, after two further albums and a constant presence on the Catalan music scene, including guest appearances with Ani DiFranco. Paul Fuster vanished from our radar screens. But now ten years on, he’s published a new disc in Catalan, entitled ‘Repte’ (Challenge).

From the alternative folk of Paul Fuster to another artist who has recently re-emerged following a long period of absence from the world of professional music. We’re talking about Barcelona-born musician Nacho Umbert (http://www.myspace.com/nachoumbert). In the mid-1990s he was lead-singer of the band Paperhouse, who released just one highly acclaimed album entitled ‘Adiós', a minimalistic product influenced by the slowcore trend. Shortly afterwards, Paperhouse broke up and Nacho Umbert gave up music, and, it is said, even forgot how to play the guitar. But in 2010, he surprised everybody with a new solo project, Nacho Umbert y La Compañía, with an album entitled ‘Ay…', which went straight into the journalists’ lists as one of the year’s best albums. Now, Umbert has released his second album, ‘No os creáis ni la mitad’ (Don’t Believe Half of It), a collection of subtle songs, most of which are sung in Spanish, produced by Raül Fernández, alias Refree.

And now for a switch in register with a creator who combines the languages of pop, electronic and experimental music. His name is Miguel Marín (http://www.miguel-marin.com/), from Seville, but he lives and works in Barcelona, where he’s been busily developing his artistic project, Árbol. After four years of silence, Árbol have brought in the New Year with a new album, ‘sp22cd', which has been acclaimed as one of the year’s best to date. A work full of evocative, fragile cinema-like settings, with the seductive voices of female guest singers.

Pop is the chosen medium of expression of Glissando (http://www.myspace.com/recordsdelfutur), a groundbreaking indie band singing in Catalan, who are becoming increasingly popular. Glissando have been together for ten years and are now celebrating their anniversary with a new album, ‘‘Ermites, cançons i com somiar en meteorits roses’ (Hermitages, songs and how to dream about pink meteorites), in which they have adapted their favourite songs by other artists, including Catalan bands such as Mishima and Sopa de cabra, together with international names such as U2, Johnny Cash and The Killers, with meticulous intimate versions and Laia Vaqué’s warm lead vocals.

So, from Glissando’s pop to the singer-songwriting genre, which has been deeply rooted in Catalonia since the 1960s, when modern troubadours such as Joan Manuel Serrat, Lluís Llach and Raimon appeared on the scene attracting large audiences. Túrnez & Sesé, the duo formed by Xavier Túrnez and Daniel Sesé offer a delicate, literary product, predominantly devoted to the divulgation of Catalan poets. On their new album, ‘Vestigis' (Vestiges), Túrnez & Sesé have subtly adapted the texts of a contemporary author, Sergi Jover, with well-worked vocal harmonies and acoustic arrangements.

In February there are a number of Catalan artists who’ll be performing at international venues. Let’s begin with La Cafetera Roja (http://www.myspace.com/lacafeteraroja), a band made up of Catalan, French and Austrian musicians, combining pop and hip-hop in a framework of sensual atmospheres. La Cafetera Roja have released their second album, ‘Louise kick an eyebrow' and are set to embark on a short European tour including four concerts in France: on February 25th they’ll be performing in Veyre-Monton, the 28th February and March 1st in Paris, the 10th March in Toucoing, and then onto Brussels on March 5th and Redange, Luxembourg, on the 6th and 7th.

Muchachito Bombo Infierno (http://muchachitobomboinfierno.com/en), one of the most active groups on the Catalan scene, famous for their fiery performances combining rumba with Latin music and Swing, will be taking the stages of Central Europe by storm: on February 23rd, the Barcelona band will be performing in Karlsruhe, Germany; on the 24th in Zurich, Switzerland, and then back to Germany for four further concerts: on the 25th in Munich, the 26th in Cologne, the 28th in Hamburg and the 29th in Berlin. Another very popular band on the fusion scene is Che Sudaka, who fuse Latin rhythms and rock with stirring results. They’ll be giving two performances in France, on February 3rd in Ax-les-Thermes and on the 4th in Mont-de-Marsan.

The totemic singer-songwriter, Paco Ibáñez (http://www.aflordetiempo.com/webNova.htm), who in the 1970s denounced Franco’s dictatorship and popularised the verses of some of Spain’s greatest poets, will be returning to France, a country with which he has maintained an intense relationship since he recorded the mythical album ‘Paco Ibáñez Live at the Olympia' in 1969. This militant and highly sensitive troubadour will be performing in Change in the Burgundy region on February 3rd.

And to close this month’s concert agenda, we have the acclaimed Barcelona Jazz Orchestra (http://www.bjo.cat/), who will be performing in Marciac, France, as part of the Marciac Jazz Festival on February 25th. This powerful big band will also be featuring a guest artist at the concert, the North American saxophonist Jesse Davis.

And still on the jazz front, we have a precocious, up-and-coming talent. We’re talking about saxophonist Félix Rossy (http://www.myspace.com/felixrossytrumpet), the teenage son of prestigious drummer and pianist Jorge Rossy. When he was just seven years old, Félix made a recording for his friends with versions of a selection of songs by The Beatles, and, when he was eleven, he took part in jam sessions with Brad Mehldau. And now, at the ripe age of seventeen, he has released his first solo album entitled ‘Introducing Félix Rossy', on the prestigious Fresh Sound New Talent label, together with Mike Kanan and Ben Stret, under the tutorship of his father, Jorge Rossy. The album is the fruit of a voyage of initiation which has been well crystallised in a documentary film entitled ‘Rossy', by Raimon Fransoy and Xavier Puig. The production presents Jorge Rossy’s transition from the drums to the piano, and, at the same time, shows us how his son, Félix, left behind his native Catalonia to accompany his father to the Big Apple and immerse himself in the city’s improvised music scene. Félix Rossy is a musician to be reckoned with. Watch this space!

The Fresh Sound label, through its New Talent branch, has also released a new album by another top jazz musician, drummer Marc Ayza (http://www.myspace.com/marcayza). His new disc, a follow-up to his last CD ‘Offering', released four years ago, is entitled ‘Live at home' and was recorded at Barcelona’s emblematic jazz club, Jamboree. In this work, Ayza and his four collaborators offer home-grown compositions in which they have broadened their range of influences and create a homogeneous groove where jazz is fused with soul and hip hop.

We close this jazz section with another new and highly original product courtesy of pianist Joan Díaz (http://www.joandiaz.net/), entitled ‘We sing Wayne Shorter', in which Díaz adapts compositions by The Weather Report’s saxophonist. The CD has the added value of young singer Judit Neddermann, who has also contributed to the album with lyrics that provide Wayne Shorter’s compositions with an interesting new angle.

In the final straight of February’s podcast, we present you with two new, fresh and eclectic albums. Firstly, a band who are becoming increasingly popular on the happening fusion and multicultural scene. We’re talking about Muyayo Rif (http://www.myspace.com/muyayorif), with sounds based on Jamaican and tropical genres, who’ve now presented their new album ‘P'alante!' The band are from the densely populated town of Cornellà, in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, and have made a name for themselves through their lively contagious performances. Their new album includes songs in Spanish, Catalan and French and was produced by Gambeat, the ex-bass guitarist of Manu Chao and producer of bands such as Che Sudaka and La Pegatina.

And, secondly, a band who offer old-style rock’n´roll sounds, Nu Niles (http://www.myspace.com/thenuniles), who took their name from a band of hair cream. Their music evokes the origins of the genre and exciting first-wave rockabilly with country and blues ingredients. They originally sang their songs in English, but then shifted to Spanish. Their new album, eponymously entitled ‘Nu Niles', puts the stress on their rock’n’roll profile in what is a bright and powerful production, courtesy of Boz Boorer, ex-member of The Polecats and the great Morrissey’s musical director.

So, with these hearty vintage rock' n’ roll sounds, we close February’s Catalan Music podcast. For the past half hour or so, we’ve tried to fill you in on all the latest news relating to music produced in Catalonia, and the international activity of artists specialising in different genres, such as alternative folk, electronic, pop, jazz and fusion. We hope you’ve enjoyed the soundtrack we’ve selected to illustrate the particularly creative moment Catalan Music is currently enjoying, and that you’ll join us again next month. Moltes gràcies i fins la propera!

Tracklist

The Brussels Philharmonic "The Artist overture"

http://weinsteinco.com/sites/the-artist/

Paul Fuster "Ja no sap greu"

http://www.myspace.com/speedy46

Nacho Umbert y La Compañia "No os creais ni la mitad"

http://www.myspace.com/nachoumbert

Arbol "In this castle"

http://www.miguel-marin.com/

Glissando "Deixa'm creure"

http://www.myspace.com/recordsdelfutur

Túrnez & Sesé "Batejaré el teu nom"

http://www.myspace.com/turnezisese

La cafetera roja "Rolex"

http://www.myspace.com/lacafeteraroja

Muchachito Bombo infierno "La noche de los gatos"

http://muchachitobomboinfierno.com/en

Paco Ibañez "La mala reputación"

http://www.aflordetiempo.com/webNova.htm

Barcelona Jazz Orquestra "September in the rain"

http://www.bjo.cat/

Félix Rossy "I'm through with love"

http://www.myspace.com/felixrossytrumpet

Marc Ayza "Love song"

http://www.myspace.com/marcayza

Joan Díaz "Suite from St. Petersburg to Moscow"

http://www.joandiaz.net/

Muyayo Rif "Si ens venen"

http://www.myspace.com/muyayorif

Nu Niles "Para que esperar"

http://www.myspace.com/thenuniles