Three decades dedicated to unusual sonorities and invented instruments. This is what Gràcia Territori Sonor (GTS) has done in the last 30 years of history. In addition to the 31st edition of LEM, the International Meeting of Experimental Music of Gràcia-Barcelona, the entity born in the Gràcia neighborhood of Barcelona will celebrate the anniversary with an exhibition at La Virreina Centre de la Imatge that will take place from November 14 to March 28 of next year. There will also be two concerts at the Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius on the occasion of two key anniversaries in the history of music in the country: the 50 years of the founding of Macromassa and of the album Bèstia! by Oriol Tramvia.
GTS has presented this Tuesday morning in a press conference at the bar of the Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius this year's program. The event has gathered Aleix Salvans, director of LEM, representatives of the District of Gràcia (Àlex Monllaó, Culture councillor), the Barcelona City Council (Eva Sòria, director of Cultural Services of ICUB) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (Xavier Cester, director of the Music Area of ICEC). During the event, the anniversary of Macromassa has been presented, which will be celebrated this Saturday, May 9, and the programming of the first half of LEM, which will take place between Thursday, May 21 and Saturday, May 30. In addition, the tribute to Oriol Tramvia has been announced, on Friday, October 2, and some of the artists of the second part of LEM, scheduled for the same month.
Thirty years dedicated to unusual sonorities
Since 1996, the LEM explores the limits of music and crosses the line that separates it from sound art. In the first two weeks of this year's edition, it will visit five spaces in Gràcia and the rest of Barcelona, with more than a dozen proposals ranging from vocal improvisation to industrial, passing through free jazz and, also, with a space for poetry. Among the artists of this May LEM are, among others, Cunningham/Volt/Serra, Oscar Abril Ascaso and Sedcontra, Veus Lliures, Alfredo Costa Monteiro and Hulm.
As assured by LEM, in the exhibition very different sonorities can be found, united by the will to expand stylistic horizons. It does so starting from an enormous range of possibilities: the complexity of progressive music, invented instruments, the unusual use of sounds coming from the most diverse sources and multidisciplinarity.
A lineup with premieres and returns
The inauguration of the May LEM will be on Thursday 21 at the Museum of Music of Barcelona. Continuing with the vindication of sound memory, Mauri Ibáñez will present his book Los inicios de la música electrónica en Barcelona (recover the report), with music by Haize Lizarazu. Afterwards, the Portuguese Alfredo Costa Monteiro will premiere Alè d’Oblit, the third part of a sound and museum trilogy where he has worked with sound recordings of the instruments preserved in this institution.
The first weekend will begin Friday 22 at La Sedeta with the first concert in the State by Ranges Collective, a formation of improvisation, contemporary music and female free jazz with members from half a dozen countries. The next day, Saturday 23, there will be a double program of music and poetry at LaKontra: the presentation of From the naia, by La Companyía Minimíssima; and the debut at LEM by Cèrber, the new project of the experimental ambient duo Espectre and the poet Raquel Santanera.
The vocal improvisation collective Veus Lliures will open the second week of LEM, on Wednesday 27. The next day, Thursday 28, the collaboration between GTS and the collective Nocturna Discordia will bring two free improvisation concerts to Soda Acústic.
The second weekend will begin Friday 29 at LaKontra with another double program: the premiere presentation of the new album by Hulm, an experimental formation integrated by Joan Torné, Edu Pons and Ernest Pipó, and the performance of a trio formed by big names from the free jazz scene: Mark Cunningham, Pablo Volt ‘Pope’ and Andreu G. Serra.
Saturday 30, the last day of May's LEM, there will be three activities. In the morning, at the Museum of Music, the artist Merche Blasco will give a workshop on the construction of a synthesizer that is activated by light and movement. In the evening, at La Sedeta, the closing will be led by the free jazz of Trinity (Luis Erades, Pablo Rega and Fernando Lamas) and the return to the stage, 30 years later, of the original incarnation of Oscar Abril Ascaso, together with Sedcontra, a legendary band of Barcelona's industrial music. They will reproduce, accompanied by Marc Thió and Pep Cremades, the concert they offered at the Communiqué venue in 1994.
The complete program of LEM can now be consulted on the GTS website. In addition, subscriptions are available for the cycle, either only for the two weeks of May or October (30 euros) or for the entire cycle (50 euros), which allow access to concerts at an even more reduced price. Advance tickets for most events are also on sale. Regarding the inauguration of the cycle and the workshop, they can be purchased very soon on the website of the Museu de la Música and L'Auditori.
