2008 CIUTAT VELLA FLAMENCO
FESTIVAL
P’ALUCINE AWARDS GALA: ARTOMATICO + FLAMENCO + BANDAÈRIA
And wickedness...
Silvia Calado (text and photos). Barcelona, May 25th,
2008
Artomatico
+ Flamenco: Artomatico (programs, bases,
samples) with Rafael Estévez & Nani Paños
(baile), Nacho Arimany (percussions) + Bandaèria:
Adrià Grandia (chirimia, hurdy-gurdy), Adrià
Bauzo (transverse flute, EWI midi sax), Juan de Diego
(trumpet), Tom Johnson (trombone), Xavier Maristany (composing,
directing and sax). 2008 P’Alucine Flamenco Audiovisual
Festival Awards Gala (Close of the 15th Ciutat Vella Flamenco
Festival). Teatre Llantiol. Barcelona, May 25th, 2008.
8 p.m.
Artomatico, Rafael Estévez,
Nani Paños, Nacho Arimany
Epilogue. Besides promoting live music,
Taller de Músics wants things to happen, for creation
to move in different directions. For example, the audiovisual.
And in that sense, parallel to the Ciutat Vella Flamenco
Festival, this year it has set up the first edition of
the P’Alucine Flamenco Audiovisual Festival. Throughout
the week, the video clips and documentaries chosen as
finalists have been shown at different venues in the central
district in Barcelona. And one night after the vibrant
performances by Rafaela Carrasco and Fernando Terremoto
at the Pati de les Dones, the winners were made known
at the Teatre Llantiol.
In the documentary category, the winning
films were ‘Dame veneno’ by Pedro Barbadillo
and Luis Clemente, ‘Morente
sueña La Alhambra’ by José Sánchez
Montes and ‘La leyenda del tiempo’ by Isaki
Lacuesta. And in that of video clips, demonstrating the
scarcity of this kind of audiovisual in flamenco, two
more than collateral proposals won: the video of ‘Será
mejor’, a disco-pop song by the eclectic rumbero
Muchachito Bomboinfierno; and ‘La falsa monea’,
a version of a couplet by Concha Buika on her new album,
‘La niña de fuego’. Good luck, then,
to video-creators and record companies for the next edition.
But it wasn’t just an awards ceremony.
The gala was surprising for the most daring ‘wickedness’
of the entire festival, the encounter between the plugged-in
flamenco project Artomatico + Flamenco - with bailaores
Rafael
Estévez andNani
Paños, and world percussionist Nacho
Arimany as guest artists - and the contemporary metals
of Bandaèria. The rhythmic structures of soleares,
alegrías and seguiriyas acted as a point of encounter
flowing upon which with absolute freedom, but total accuracy,
were machines, dances, knocks, foreshortenings, pumpkins,
trumpet, hurdy-gurdy, sax... and Borrico’s echo,
and that of Anica
la Piriñaca airing her great truths from beyond
the grave. “To fulfill my duty to God and the world,
I don’t talk to you when I meet you”.
But here, at this charming, cozy stage
of Raval, just the contrary happened; no duty had to be
fulfilled with anyone or anything, for the communication
was fluent between the musicians... And from them towards
an audience which was absolutely knocked out by so much
intensity, with a freedom which sometimes amazed, sometimes
hurt, sometimes resounded within, sometimes turned brutish,
and others (because of two very brilliant dancers) very
beautiful esthetically. The prospecting of flamenco’s
electronic possibilities was yet to begin. And it had
to be in Barcelona.
Tom Johnson, Xavier Maristany,
Rafael Estévez and Nani Paños
