This year, Fabra i Coats: Fàbrica de Creació, in the Barcelona neighborhood of Sant Andreu, hosts more than a hundred projects in residence, of which 25 are musical. In order to show their talent, these days and until April 18 it organizes the exhibition FIL_IN.
The name recalls the past of the facility as a thread factory and, at the same time, proposes an innovative concert format that seeks to capture the feeling (sentiment, in Catalan) of the spectators before the proposals of artists who develop musical projects at La Fabra. In total, 21 resident musical groups open their creation processes to the public.
The first session took place on March 5 and brought together the Basque Verde Prato with the Catalan Clara Aguilar, who have worked at Fabra i Coats within the framework of the first edition of the artistic residency Ozen i Fort, which promotes links between professional artists from the Basque Country and Catalonia.
The second day of the exhibition will be on March 21 from 6 p.m. and is marked by the intersection between FIL_IN and El Festival Que Faltava, an initiative by the residents Les que Faltaband. They and Maruja Limon will share the strength and freshness of their live performance that covers the entire geography of Catalan, flamenco, quinqui, mestizo, and Latin rumba in a crossroads of electronic and organic sounds.
Jazz will also be present at the exhibition with the Lisbon singer Marta Garrett and the Italian guitarist Leonardo Mezzini, currently residing in this Barcelona space, who will present their first album on March 27, assanhado. The same day, one can enjoy the pop of the trio Selva Nua, who, besides having shared a flat, share rhythms, and Marta Night, who will present her new and very personal EP Unbothered.
On March 28, on the stage of the multi-purpose rooms, more jazz will be seen with Eva Fernández, saxophonist, singer and composer from Sant Andreu who will present in a trio the album she is developing. Also the feminist and queer band from Barcelona Las Opinólogas, which draws from flamenco, cobla, neo folk and urban music, will share with the public their deeply subversive proposals, and Trèvol, with their “outskirts folk”, will move between folk music, roots music and many other genres, and who at FIL_IN will conclude the tour of their new album.
April: improvisation and rhythms of the world
The most urban rhythms will star in the first day of April, which will take place on the 10th. Colectivo La Nave, with Dani Pulmon and Franky Brownz, who met at the Catalan Beatbox Battle 2023, will present El Improverso, an improvisation show based on audience suggestions. Next, the duo Laribal will propose a taste of three songs with organic guitars, vocal harmonies and Barcelonian costumbrista lyrics, and the show by the transfeminist band, La Tia Borracha, will bring cumbia and pop hits with superhuman strength.
The session on April 11 is programmed by Fes! Cultura and focuses attention on artists of various origins: the Zimbabwean artist Tina Masawi, with a powerful afro-soul live performance and who is releasing her first album; Cecé & The Soul Kitchen, Venezuelan artist who builds an urban sound with influences of hip-hop, soul, jazz and R&B; and La Ruka, an explosive celebration of salsa choke, fusing Afro-descendant rhythms with hip-hop and sounds from the Colombian Pacific.
On April 17 Dani Molina and Ramir Martínez, Monocrom!, will celebrate with the public their 10th anniversary as a group and will premiere Un Tast de Roig, a combination of electronics and acoustic instruments around the color red. The union of producers David Soler and Marcel Bagés, L’Extintor, will present their first joint musical project, Coplas y Acoles, in which they have worked with the Ecuadorian artist LaTorre, a very poetic electro-pop mix with Andean brushstrokes. On the same day, artists Judit K. & Fernanda Alemán propose an immersive concert and will transform the stage space into a hypnotic live sound experience.
Finally, on April 18, the album of another of the star co-productions of Fabra i Coats, 4132314, will be presented live, with three duets, Cocanha, Tarta Relena and Los Sara Fontan, the result of a long process of research, composition and interpretation at La Fabra. The show they will present marks the end of a tour that has traveled through Catalonia, Europe and the United States.
This collective creation explores the factory past of the current creation factory, reinterpreting the work songs of the textile women, translating numerical patterns of textile manufacturing into musical compositions and using mechanical sounds and witness narratives.
On the same day, the residents of the theatre company la LabOriosa will perform Allò que no us he dit, an immersive journey where working women from the old thread factory participate, a theatrical vision that brings real testimony to the stage, involving the audience in an interpretation of the heritage of the past and the present.
About Fabra i Coats: Fàbrica de Creació
Fabra i Coats: Fàbrica de Creació is an ecosystem in which artists and collectives from different disciplines can develop their activity and find support. Resident artists have access to flexible spaces adaptable to their activity, which they can access through different calls.
Also, they are provided with support and tools to be able to establish links and relationships beyond the facility, so that they can give a boost to their career. Among these tools, there are mentorships, accompaniment, participation in collaborations, and the possibility of showing their works at different stages to the public through different formats.
