Veus CCCB - Part 23

The hidden history of Escarlata

January 22nd, 2014 Jaime Casas No Comments

Part three of the presentation of Emergència! 2014 introduces newcomers Escarlata, a collaborative experiment that takes the high road of non-conformist poetic pop previously trodden by Randy Newman, High Llamas, Robert Wyatt and Dennis Wilson.

They present Lo que me dijiste al oído se extendió por todo el mundo (Fohen, 13), one of those works that skirts the edges of today’s mercurial alternative music scene. It’s still so little known that it’s barely been heard beyond the inner circles, which are full of praise for the scope and significance of the project.

Escarlata are Remate and Israel Marco. Escarlata is the product of a spontaneous, enthusiastic coming together. Escarlata combines the talent of these two musicians with years of experience on the national scene. Madrid’s Remate, with ten albums to his name, has a vibrant personality that eludes all labels. In 2014, he also makes his debut as a writer with the publication of Suelo estar, a book inspired by one of the songs on Una araña a punto de comerse a una mosca. Israel Marco, a regular at Emergència!, has a huge and very distinctive artistic talent that he divides between various projects: Cuchillo, Caballo and Viva. He is a fine intuitive guitarist, a musician to watch when he gets up on stage: every chord, every arpeggio he plays, has something to say, and it’s often a story that exceeds the audience’s expectations.

Together, and almost without meaning to, they’ve pieced together a discourse that’s crystallized in the outline of a world halfway between dream pop and reflection. Strange but alluring. To the point and eloquent. Instrumentally complex and laborious, packed with sharp details that anticipate the next step in the narrative. Their songs tell minimum stories about lyrical, cinematographic atmospheres. They move as slowly as they can in the task of laying before us their loves and hates; the inexplicit influences of a music that is as imaginative as it is sophisticated.

Of the various projects you’re both involved in, how and why did this collaboration come about?

Initially it was Carlos Toronado who “introduced” us. He’d known me well for about ten years and just after recording Cuchillo, he thought we’d complement each other, because we were and are very different, but ethically and aesthetically we share a similar idea of music. Not necessarily in the form the music takes, but in the way we go about it. It’s a question of attitude and professionalism, I think. He thought that each would bring out the best in the other, which he saw as my lyrics and harmonies, and his overview and attention to detail. So, that was the start.

What is it about Escarlata that makes you click so naturally? How did you manage to make it all fit so well?

I hope you’re right! I feel really good about what we’ve done. We’ve always been open to a third element, not just the sum of Remate and Cuchillo. Very much relying on “inspiration”, a “still life” of songs, on an unexpected happening that made us ditch the script. That’s why we went and worked in the studio without clear objectives, with the only clear idea of coming up with something stimulating.

What are the defining characteristics of Escarlata? Fragile voices and poetic atmospheres?

That’s not something we thought about beforehand, except an Escarlata light. A Lynchian light, but not necessarily that fetishistic, just trying to take this light to other landscapes. I would say yes, it’s dream-like and feverish, but we’re talking hay fever. A bit theatrical, but in cinema form. I don’t know, I hope it’s not THAT intellectual, because it was all very instinctive.

I’d also mention this capacity to slip in some humour and reflection into that dreamlike quality that runs through the disc. What are the songs about? There are references to sport, illness, love, and so on. It’s a very eclectic thematic universe.

I think the songs deal with things that seem odd, but they don’t happen oddly, nor are they that unusual, I mean there’s nothing circus-freaky about them. They’re about the way life can be odd, and if we pick out these odd moments it’s so that we can laugh at everything, at these moments and at the ones that aren’t odd. It’s all a convention. It’s all a role we’re playing. I mean, everyone. The mechanic, the cyclist, me.

There’s a lingering air of the cinema. Is film an influence in Escarlata?

Yes. Directors like David Lynch, Alexander Payne, etc.

Escarlata Fiesta

More than musicians, the two members of the duo are music lovers. Remate picked five songs by other groups that form the duo’s musical DNA. “A cocktail with these ingredients is real ESCARLATA”, he says.

Robert Wyatt Sea song

The Glove (Steven Severin & Robert Smith) Punish Me With Kisses

John Cale & Brian Eno Spinning Away

Carpenters Superstar

The Beach Boys & Annette Funicello The Monkey’s Uncle

@JaimeCasasB

Escarlata will be presenting Lo que me dijiste al oído se extendió por todo el mundo on the Auditorium stage at E!2014.

Posted in Sin categoría el January 22nd, 2014

Tags: Emergència!2014, Escarlata

Evgeny Morozov against the cyber-optimism

January 21st, 2014 Joan Subirats No Comments

Evgeny Morozov during his last lecture

Evgeny Morozov is one of the foremost critical thinkers in the current debate about the role of the internet during the changing times we are immersed in. It seems quite clear and nobody argues with the fact that the technological changes of our age are extremely significant. The debate about who wins and who loses acquires even greater significance when new technologies alter long-established ways of doing things, such as manufacturing and working, policymaking and governing societies, and influence their cost-effectiveness. In spite of his youth, (he was born in 1984), Evgeny Morozov has come to the forefront of this international debate by using solid arguments to highlight the fact that the internet threatens the way democracy is run.

In a short period of time, Morozov has published two books (El desengaño de Internet. Los mitos de la libertad en la red, Destino, 2012; To Save Everything Click Here. Technology, solutionism and the urge to fix problems that don’t exist, Allen Lane, 2013),and numerous articles in the most prestigious newspapers and magazines. Morozov has sought to unmask and draw attention to what he considers to be the false promises which the internet (and the businesses who take advantage of it) have made us believe: its ability to solve problems and favour our independence and ability to produce, think and decide. He has been one of the most incisive writers against the cyber-optimism which guaranteed that the problems of freedom and democracy would be resolved through technological change. While his first book talks about the problems of new technological tools in tackling their promised aims, the second focuses more on the objectives and argues that the internet turns what should be public and collective into something private and individual. Furthermore, it affirms that the internet seeks to promise us a solution to all our concerns, when they are often part of our collective and individual modus operandi and way of life.

Whether we agree with Morozov’s views, there is no denying that he has carved out a place in the area that politicises and views as problematic the growing impact of the internet on our lives and power relationships. What better way to begin the Open City series than with this debate? Because it is precisely with subjects such as smart cities and the spread of smartphones that we take for granted the fact that there will be greater transparency, an increase in the citizens’ ability to decide and have control of public affairs as well as improvements in urban issues. A lively discussion is guaranteed.

Evgeny Morozov will be at the CCCB next Monday January 27th to start the series “Open City” giving the opening lecture ‘Democracy, Technology and City‘. You can watch the lecture live via streaming or follow the Twitter updates using the hashtag #ciutatoberta.

Posted in Sin categoría el January 21st, 2014

Tags: Centre de Documentació i Debat, CentreDoc, Ciutat oberta, Conferències, Debat de Barcelona, Debates, Evgeny Morozov

The Barcelona Debate: Open City

January 21st, 2014 Judit Carrera No Comments

The Barcelona Debate is back, and with it we are inaugurating our programme of lectures for the year. With “Open City”, we resume one of the CCCB’s longest-standing traditions with a series of sessions that each year proposes reflection on a different key aspect of contemporary life through a multidisciplinary approach. In recent years our debates have placed the accent on the crisis and uncertainty about the future, civic virtues, and life in common, with thinkers such as Tzvetan Todorov, Nancy Fraser, Zygmunt Bauman, Marina Garcés, Salvador Cardús, Avishai Margalit, Saskia Sassen, Eva Illouz, Orhan Pamuk, Anna Cabré and Antonio Tabucchi.

Richard Sennett CCCB © Miquel Taverna, 2009
Sennett impartirà una de les conferències del debat “Ciutat Oberta”

Why “Open City” now? The CCCB wants to take part in commemorating the Tercentenary of the siege of Barcelona by contrasting the closed city surrounded by the enemy with the open city, whose citizens do not live under a shadow that threatens their freedom.

Since its origins, the city has been associated with democracy because of its potential for liberty, equality and pluralism. In the open city, anything that is different, ambivalent or divergent, does not remain outside its boundaries, but forms part of urban life, it is the very condition of its existence. And the truth is that cities are contradictory spaces by nature: we want them to be a home, a welcoming place for meetings and exchanges, but this openness inevitably leads to uncertainty, conflict and ambiguity. In the open city there is coexistence but also friction, novelty but also risk. It is a place where there is constant tension between the desire to control and freedom, where the contradictions of the contemporary city are made manifest. For this reason, the open city is, above all, a tool for thinking; an aspiration, a utopian state, an ideal horizon. It enables us to dream about the city as a space of emancipation and imagine other ways of coexisting and, simultaneously, it provides evidence of the logic of exclusion, survival strategies and the unavoidable disagreements that are a result of life in common.

Over a nine-week period, we will be asking what makes an open city possible today, and what endangers it. Among other issues, we will discuss the risks and potential of new technologies, cultural and linguistic diversity, the boundaries between the public space and private space and the city’s real and imaginary limits.

Posted in Sin categoría el January 21st, 2014

Tags: Centre de Documentació i Debat, CentreDoc, Ciutat oberta, Conferències, Debat de Barcelona, Debates, Erri de Luca, Evgeny Morozov, Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, Kamila Shamsie, Manuel Forcano, Marta Segarra, Rafael Chirbes, Richard Sennett

Cuello: urgently emergent

January 16th, 2014 Jaime Casas No Comments

Instalment two in a series of eight profiles about the artistic remit of Emergència 2014. Cuello, the band of José Guerrero, fromValencia, is emerging as one of the liveliest proposals in the festival’s line-up since it started. Clear, simple and direct is what people are saying; uncomplicated. Rampantly melodic with irrepressible energy.

They debuted with a fantastic album, Mi Brazo Que te Sobre (BCore), marked by a lyrical feel that boldly suggests the ideas that come together in the muscle of a pulsing rock concert. This is one project more of the many that make up the alternative scene today inValencia, a hotbed of creativity and new ideas. José Guerrero explains who Cuello are and what they do.

Between the powerful abstraction of Betunizer and the rhythmic essence of Jupiter Lion, how did Cuello come into being, and why? It seems like a more laidback, spontaneous project than the other groups you play with…

For a while I’d been thinking about getting together a band where the melodies were more important than innovation, experimentation, things like that. Like you say, something more laidback and spontaneous, to start with at least. Perhaps even something closer to pop, but guitar-based and energetic. One day I started writing songs and formed the band with what I thought were the right people—musicians like me who in theory are not at all poppy, bringing our own approach to the songs. Rather than trying to explain something with Cuello, what I wanted was to enjoy playing this kind of songs, like I do with other bands and projects I’m involved in.

Is this raw, grandiloquent side of Cuello intended?

What we intended was to produce songs with energy, in every case positive energy. They have to have this energy to form part of our repertoire. Rather than grandiloquent, I’d say “grandipotent”.

We hear a huge range of influences: American rock like Hüsker Dü or Guided by Voices, nineties hardcore, and even some more commercial influences. Basically, alternative music that just won’t stop. How would you define these influences?

Once a music freak hits 30, it’s hard to talk about specific influences; it’s wide open. One night I can be mesmerised listening to The Disintegration Loop by William Basinski, then the next morning I put on Weezer’s debut album and get off listening to that. I’ve always enjoyed listening to melodic music, however much I like more different, extreme things at other times. You could say that Cuello’s most direct influences are guitar-driven bands with a positive spirit, with the emphasis on vocal melodies. I’m a big fan of Guided by Voices, for example. Not all their songs are great tracks, but most of them are really exciting. I just love Robert Pollard!! And talking of melodies, there’s also the Pixies, the Beach Boys, Superchunk, Built to Spill, the Ramones, blah blah blah…

Listen to Cuello’s first disc, “Mi Brazo Que te Sobre”.

So melody and energy are the distinguishing features of Cuello?

Absolutely. They are two of the important things when writing a Cuello song, where the guitar riffs are important, but they’re nothing without a good vocal melody. And while I’m interested in that spontaneous, laidback sound, I try not to settle for the first thing that comes to mind just because it goes with a certain riff.

In the last ten years, Valencia has produced some of the boldest and most interesting projects in Spanish rock—Le Jonathan Reilly, Estrategia Lo Capto, Negro, Betunizer. Can we talk about a Valencia scene?

It’s true that a lot has happened in recent years. I suppose it’s because people now have more access to much more music, and here, in this country, there’s basically a lot of creativity and a lot of nerve, so you’re going to see people taking risks and wanting to try things. Everyone’s got influences, I’m not denying that, but you can see that lots of bands fromValenciahave got a personality of their own, and that’s great. I’m convinced that the music world will be talking about it. We’ve no reason to envy a lot of the music being made elsewhere.

The song titles, the words and the phrasing you use when you sing are surprising. There’s something different and exciting, a subtle intelligence in these lyrics. All the songs on the disc seem like potential hits…

That’s the idea—to make all the songs hits! But hits for the kind of music lover who never buy anyone’s Greatest Hits.

Tell us about one of your songs. What are the ideas behind a given song?

Really, I prefer not to say too much about what each song is about. I prefer it if everyone draws their own conclusions. Personally, I like things that are thought-provoking, that prompt different interpretations of the same line, flirt with the absurd and with simple things, which are the most important. What I will say about Cuello is that I generally write about very basic things, about lust for life or jumping into a swimming pool, or about internal conflicts and criticising things that seem to me a waste of time and that sometimes make us less happy when what we have to do is just that, try to be happy. But really, explanations are unnecessary. What’s important is that people listen to our music and make of it what they will. Ultimately, they can’t go too far wrong.