[UiM 010] Joan Saura – Àlbum

by on in Releases

You never know where the interesting things are beforehand. That’s why I approach everywhere.

I always try to set myself a challenge, to do something I haven’t done before, to open up a minimally new space. If the language is acoustic or neoclassical, I don’t really care.


Joan Saura (“Un repte anomenat Joan Saura”/ David Picó. In: Rock & Classic, Avui (3/03/1999))

At Urpa i musell we are very pleased to present the reissue of Àlbum, by musician Joan Saura, an album originally published by Nova Era – Música Secreta in 1998.

Joan Saura (1954-2012) was a pioneer in the use of the sampler in experimental music in Catalonia, combining improvisation and composition and developing his own language that dialogued with disciplines such as dance and the visual arts. He passed away prematurely, he was very influential in his generation, one of the richest and most unclassifiable in the country, where he is still much remembered and loved. The relevance of his work and legacy – the multiple tributes that have been dedicated to him testify to this – have not received the recognition it deserves.

Heir to the Ona Laietana, Joan Saura was a founding member of the groups Rambla, Blay Tritono and Rambliolia. In the 1980s he founded Koniec with Xavier Maristany, Josep Palomas and Oriol Perucho, a leading formation in experimental and unconventional music with other bands such as Macromassa and Gringos. In the 1990s he was one of the promoters of such innovative experiences as the Orquestra del Caos or the first collective IBA (Improvisadors de Barcelona). David Picó S. summarized his background in an article in the Rock & Classic supplement of the newspaper Avui: “it is important to remember that Joan Saura is a musician who comes from afar and who has crossed various terrains […] without settling down in any one or without ever seeking shortcuts to conventional music.” Saura specified this in the same article: “in fact, I have always understood groups as workshops to try new things and see the results.”

The facet of Joan Saura that best demonstrates his multifaceted vision of music is the abundant work dedicated to incidental music, especially intended for dance. In the 80s he began his collaboration with the Ballet Contemporani de Barcelona, and also with dancers and choreographers such as Àngels Margarit and the company Mudances, Constanza Brnčić, Andrés Corchero and the company Raravis. Later, he participated in dance shows by the companies Nats Nus, Lanònima Imperial and many others.

During his career he also shared the stage as an improviser with many musicians, such as John Zorn (Cobra), Evan Parker, Peter Kowald, Carlos Zíngaro, Graham Haynes, Butch Morris and Rhodri Davies.

I am interested in starting from scratch, developing an idea that interests me for whatever reason. I give it musical form and it grows on its own, takes shape and asks for instrumentation.

Joan Saura (El sàmpler, un instrument per a la música del futur. Program. Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, 1999)

The album in question, Àlbum, is a collection of previously unreleased pieces, a panorama of his mature work –up to the date of publication–, where very different music pieces are united, despite the perceptible common hand, coherent and without prejudice. The album contains improvisations, compositions and hybrids, a dynamic very typical of Saura, as Cabo San Roque explained to Enderrock shortly after his death (“Els músics recorden Joan Saura”. In: Enderrock (25/10/2012)): “a great contribution that [Joan Saura] has made to us is the way of working and understanding composition and improvisation without belittling either of the two and taking advantage of and combining well what one and the other gives you.” The improvisations on the album are with Nuno Rebelo, Xavier Maristany and Agustí Fernández; the compositions, for shows by Àngels Margarit, María Muñoz and Tomàs Aragay; and the hybrids, an unfinished piece by Koniec, a reworking of an improvisation with Nuno Rebelo and an improvisation using sound samples from Josep Manuel Berenguer’s album Klänge. This wide range results in pieces with very diverse and rich sounds. David Picó S. emphasized it in his review when the album was released: “atmospheric tones, acoustic pointillism, intensity in crescendo, experimentation, serenity, improvisation; and very varied sounds, with pianos, violins, saxophones, guitars, samplers… […] A challenge for Saura and also for the listener with awake ears.” Pere Pons summed up this whole amalgam: “Saura has made his craft and talent an authentic art of subtlety and discretion. He has been an intrepid and persistent creator, a true pursuer of the definitive note in the drawer of samplers, variations and loops. Music for him had no secrets, but was a secret in itself.” (“Curtcircuit”, Pere Pons. In: Enderrock, 23/10/2012).

Joan was one of the best creative musicians in this country. […] He was the first to decide to play the sampler as his main, or only, instrument. And he made the most of an instrument that was initially so limited. He was one of the first musicians to understand that music could no longer be made with just notes or rhythms, but that we had to think and feel the sound as a physical entity that reaches our ears before we conceptualized the music, we could make with it. He had an extraordinary sensitivity to sound and sound processes, and this made him a great improviser.

Agustí Fernández (“Els músics recorden Joan Saura”. In: Enderrock , 25/10/2012)

Joan Saura’s instrument, the sampler, profoundly affected both the music he made and his working processes. Simply put, sampling is using pre-recorded sounds in the creation of new works, often edited or modified. The instruments used were originally intended for other musical genres. Saura recontextualized the sampler outside the field for which it was conceived and brought it to experimental music where, although everything can have a place there by definition, it is also true that it has had and has its own dynamics, and the use of the sampler at that time was not one of them.

In this unexplored field, Saura squeezed the instrument and technique to the last drop. He went back and forth from improvisation to composition, intersecting them; the instrument itself invited him to new paths: “I often work with improvisation, and instead of developing conventional scores, I make density schemes, etc. Regardless of the large structure, I reserve the space for what happens inside to be the fruit of a spontaneous creation” (conversation with Joan Saura in: El sampler, un instrument per a la música del futur. Program. Barcelona, Fundació Joan Miró, 1999). “The sampler offered him multiple possibilities: “you can control the tuning of the sound (an octave or two lower, for example) but also the duration (longer and shorter). Therefore, in addition to the modifications of the pitch of the sound, the shape can be modified. It is also possible to cut, paste, superimpose, filter…” (Joan Saura in: El sàmpler […]).

Joan Saura also knew how to take advantage of his extensive musical background. Another sampler, Adrià Bofarull, with whom he collaborated, highlights that, unlike other musicians, Saura had “very powerful pianist roots”, which served him to trigger samples with keyboards connected to the Akai or laptop, “where his ideas glided vertiginously”. “He was very dynamic, he could be both super energetic and fine and precise when necessary, and this marked his restless, expressive and continuously expanding language” (private conversation with Adrià Bofarull).

In short, Joan Saura’s music takes place in an open field, there are no maps or routes, but this should not scare us. After the initial vertigo, his frank, singular and mutable discourse can only fascinate us. Surely, with our ears now more open, relaxed and attentive, we will only be able to make our own the motto of the tribute concert dedicated to Can Felipa in 2012: “freedom is not only a right, but also an obligation.” Hopefully, this reissue will immerse us all in the spirit of Joan Saura!

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