October 6th saw the opening of the exhibition ‘POPULAR‘, for which a very special soundtrack was created by the ubiquitous and hyper-experimental «cantaor ex-flamenco» Niño de Elche together with me as composer, instrumentalist and producer.
After an intense two-month work period in which we composed, recorded and mixed 15 songs from scratch at Sauerland Studios, the collection of songs that Niño de Elche and I have created wanders the limits, so often blurred, between sound, music and the popular aspects of the song.
Agustín García Calvo said that the popularity of a song is measured by the possibilities it has of being hummed while you take a shower. Whether with electronic dance music, spoken word, music from the Latin diaspora or flamenco, Niño de Elche has tried to connect some of the pieces from the IVAM Collection, some of its images, with the possible way they can be sung. That is, hummed in the shower: be it a statement by Juan Hidalgo or the petenera declined from the portraits of the Mexican natives by Paul Strand, be it a fandango dedicated to Helios Gómez or the rhythmic imprint of the famous VALIE EXPORT tattoo that Rosalía recovered. An image is also a song.
Know more about the exhibition and listen to the songs here:
https://ivam.es/es/exposiciones/popular/