Download new tracks by Jorge Pardo at www.flamencodigital.com

Jorge Pardo, flamenco musician. Interview

“Internet is a medium for artistic expression
that the institutions should applaud”

Silvia Calado. Madrid, August 2005
Translation: Gary Cook

Jorge Pardo takes a new direction for flamenco music. The sounds that just burst from his flute are published on the newly-launched downloads website Flamencodigital.com. The musician's support for this project, developed in collaboration with Flamenco-world.com, is an attempt to come up with an alternative to the traditional industry format, offering one which is more competitive, more direct, more open. The artist believes that, so long as public and private institutions involved in the sector offer their backing, flamenco will benefit, as “there are many artists that have a lot to contribute to this artform, and who aren't getting proper recognition from the industry's big players.” At the same time, he's immersed in many other musical projects, most notably Chick Corea's Touchstone tour, the new album with the trio where he joins Carles Benavent and Tino di Geraldo, an audio-visual recording with the band D’3... and twenty new tracks he's putting the finishing touches to for distribution over the Internet.

Why have you chosen the Internet as the new medium for distributing your music?

There are several reasons: one that's an economic reason related to the industry and another that's artistic and emotive. Starting on the artistic side, one of the reasons is that the CD forces you to present your work in a specific format in terms of both playing time and tracks, giving it some overall sense of unity. Your project has to consist of a number of tracks and has to span between fifty and sixty minutes. With this other format for publishing songs, you approach the project differently. They're individual songs, you can have a session with a musician, record a couple of tracks and that's the project done. You're not forced to have to fill out the album searching for more tracks to complete a CD.

	Jorge Pardo (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Another point is the speed of execution. You finish a tune in the studio today and publish it tomorrow, without it having to pass through record company filters and wait for sufficient marketing power to accompany the music release... So, the end-user, the flamenco-lover, sort of gets the project hot off the presses. And then there's the economic reason related to the industry. This is a new industry, it seems that for the time being it isn't as corrupted as the manufacture and sale of CDs. With the format we've chosen and the agreement we've reached with Flamenco-world.com and Flamencodigital.com there's a very productive equality between the industry and the artist, leaving out the industry players that charge over-the-top fees, swelling the price of the product to maintain the large-scale industry infrastructure.

For a form of music like flamenco, what advantages do you think this new format might have?

I think if there's a reasonable take-up by audiences that allows sufficient flexibility for artists to release their products via this small company, and if they can get their name known and get their projects into the marketplace, I mean I think it's very positive. Apart from the big stars of flamenco who everybody knows, there are many artists that have a lot to contribute to this artform, and who aren't getting proper recognition from the industry's big players. So this could be a place where plenty of artists can demonstrate their talents, artists who otherwise are confined to their home or their barrio or other tight circle. It will mainly benefit young people.

Does the new format need coordination from public and private bodies to bring an end to the negative image that Internet currently has?

Yeah. To speak knowledgably on the subject, I should have a more in-depth knowledge of the industry's big players and their plans regarding this format. I already know about the success of ‘iTunes’, for example, but I suppose that they should've taken it seriously instead of demonizing Internet use for this purpose. Of course there are pirates all over the place. The Internet is a medium for artistic expression that the institutions in general, both official and unofficial, should welcome and applaud.

As you've just returned from the U.S.A., is this format more widely used among musicians involved in musical styles like jazz?

I know that there are jazz people working like that. The thing is that the U.S. is a country of such dimensions that a ‘small’ website like ours, say, just fades into the background. There are thousands of jazz titles there just by amateurs. The size of their operations is something else - on the one hand that makes things easier because there's greater volume, but on the other hand everything's on a larger scale and probably, then, has less credibility. As soon as you start something up, it's everywhere. I think we can get the right balance of scale here with these small foundations. Besides, jazz might be very marginal to some, but it already has a very strong foothold in the marketplace. Flamenco is a lot smaller-scale, although the quality isn't inferior, of course. But even in the place where it's made. Our cities are Spanish size, but at the same time the interest from around the world is great. I think it's an interesting relationship between small and large that can work on the Internet, and it could be beneficial to flamenco, more perhaps than to other artforms.

Jorge Pardo

What's your working methodology for creating the initial digital repertoire that you just released?

Since there are no plans to finish a project before putting it on the market, my idea is to launch projects that are perpetually unfinished. So my plan is to open different packages and, with the passing of time, I'll start dropping tracks into each sack. I've already started several lines of work, and I'm going to continue working in those veins.

At a pace defined by your inspiration?

The pace defined by my inspiration is frenzied, but my bank advises me that I should go on tour once in a while with Chick Corea. (He laughs).

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