The problem with multi-band experiences is: if bands are similar in genre, they bleed into each other; if they’re not, as Cargo, Graves and Institut Fatima (see photo) definitely weren’t last night, you have to emotionally adjust, which is work for a Saturday night, let’s be honest. Still, the venue La Fontana is cool. It’s enormous, and lies… Read more »
Purity Imperfect – Carlos Zingaro
For the second LEM concert held in Macba’s chilly auditorium, last night, ZNGR Electroacoustic Ensemble: Carlos Zingaro (in the middle) flanked by an equally serious Emidio Buchino (right) and Carlos Santos (left), met with a smattering of souls and an awestruck silence. A classically-trained violinist, Portuguese Zingaro is a LEM pioneer, having worked with the festival from the… Read more »
Ballets Russes, the show.
Felia Doubrovska is The Firebird (1910) In 1909, a troupe of Russian dancers embarked on a whirlwind 20-year tour of Europe that was to sex-up ballet considerably. Hitherto a fluffy thing stuffed between opera acts, dance became a multidisciplinary multi-sensorial extravaganza that shocked the most enlightened of Parisian… Read more »
Serge Diaghilev, bad example.
Too naughty: Serge Diaghilev A talk related to the exhibition Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at CaixaForum started with a 20minute introduction by Miquel Cuenca, a man surely too verbose to be a music critic, before the real speaker, Sjeng Scheijen, kicked into his bit. The Dutchman had just published a fat bio of Sergei Diaghilev, a… Read more »
LEM review – Rules of the relationship
Murcof, aka Javier Corona, a rolly-polly Mexican computer musician and Phillippe Petit, a Frenchman on the edge were the ideal combination for a musical relationship – any relationship, in fact. Performing as part of festival LEM, there was the scent of vanilla, toothpaste and the CaixaForum’s auditorium was filled to bursting, to the point that… Read more »
Inspired by the Ballet Russe
Here are some raunchy recent versions of famous Ballet Russe productions.
Apocalyptic dance at LEM
Soizu: a freakishly good butoh performance that formed an unexpected part of LEM music festival. Held at the dance space la Caldera this outrageously disturbing act was made more so by the fact that many in the audience seemed non-plussed by it. On a sparse, ripped up landscape, to the grinding soundscape of Iker Ormazábal, formidable dancer… Read more »
LEM outline – Weird, without trying.
LEM! Barcelona’s established, experimental music festival c.1996! It mushroomed out of a clump of alternative spaces in the Gràcia area, later infiltrating more comfy institutions downtown such as Macba and CaixaForum. What to expect: A two week programme for *experimental* tastes. The best thing about it: Its raggedy coolness, off-beat but professional. The electronica and ‘cinematic’… Read more »
Acting workshop ‘Word Made Action’ – Will Keen (Cheek by Jowl)
Advanced Acting Workshop taught in Spanish took place 02/10/11 to 07/10/11 For more check Sala Beckett here. For details of this one
Exhibition – Art of Darkness
Portraits of the Belle Époque, ended October 9. Still interested? Nice!