Silvia Moreno Sevilla
Seville
Updated Monday, February 26, 2024-21:26
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Almost a thousand years ago, there was already a fabulous orchard in what today are the Buhaira gardens in Seville.
It was during the reign of
Al-Mutamid
, the poet monarch of the Sevillian taifa kingdom.
Starting in the 12th century, under the caliphate of
Abu Yacub Yusuf
, the green spaces in this area were expanded and a palace was built.
Nine centuries after this imposing building was built, the members of the
Caliphate 3/4
group - read three by four, like the compass, and not three quarters - pose at the entrance to the Buhaira palace.
It is the place chosen by the band made up of two Sevillians -
Manuel Chaparro
(vocals) and
Lorenzo Soria
(programming and percussion) - and two people from Malaga -
Esteban Espada
(bass) and
Sergio Ruiz
(keyboards) - to talk about their new album
Êcclabô de Libertá
, which launches this February 29.
The choice of this enclave is not accidental.
It connects with the vindication of the past and the pride of feeling Andalusian that Caliphate 3/4 has carried in its DNA since its emergence in 2018. «Whoever knows the history of Andalusia knows that never, anywhere in the world, nor in any civilization, Not even with the Medici in Italy, there was a congregation of as many
wise men
, as many scientists, as many doctors and as many
free thinkers
as in the Caliphate,” Chaparro launches.
The Caliphate is the period of greatest splendor of Al Andalus.
The release date of the new album has not been chosen at random either.
It is
February 29
, which they have designated as the day of the
"new Andalusia"
, after February 28, the official day of the Andalusian community.
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And what is this new Andalusia like?
Is it a nation?
Esteban Espada
.
It is a world, a dream and a mental place.
It is an Andalusia with pride, not because we believe that our land is better than others, but because we recognize its history, its culture, its identity and its struggle.
Rebel, not out of opposition to everything, but out of resistance to injustice, oppression, marginalization and oblivion.
With memory, not because it is anchored in the past, but because we learn from it, and we claim it as a source of inspiration and dignity.
She is also supportive.
R.
Manuel Chaparro
.
We Andalusians have been crushed and today we are still a colony.
We don't want that.
With our music, we try to decolonize Andalusian culture so that the money stays in Andalusia and they don't come to steal our culture so that it can later be traded in Madrid, Barcelona or Bilbao.
All those keys to the "new Andalusia" are in
Êcclabô de Libertá
- slave of freedom, written with the phonemes of Andalusian speech.
With it, Caliphate 3/4 continues with the
"futuristic folklore"
of their previous works, which is now nourished by "
electronic
, flamenco, guasa, Latin, Moorish things, other very fresh dance and even baroque", Soria lists.
Such a
"mess"
is something natural for the band.
«Let's see, on all continents, people have mixed their folklore with electronics.
Why not with
flamenco
?
"Do you think that flamenco, which is the greatest thing in the world, doesn't have a more incredible potential than tango, fado or cumbia?" Chaparro points out, while the others nod.
Espada, under Caliphate 3/4, has a degree in Technical Architecture, but has "always" been linked to literature and has countless
literary awards
.
The group did not meet at university or at literary competitions, but at night in Seville, in the most
underground
scene and as DJs in clubs.
«Years ago, Chaparro was playing electronics and, halfway through the session, he stopped everything and brought in
Rocío Jurado
.
And, of course, people went very crazy », he remembers.
Almost monastic life
The Caliphate 3/4 have spent a year locked in the studio with their new job, leading an almost monastic life, with swimming in the mornings at the
Polígono
San Pablo
sports center
in Seville, where they share the streets of the pool with the grandparents who They go to the courses.
"I am a specialist in mothers, grandmothers, uncles and grandfathers," Chaparro says jokingly, referring to the
very heterogeneous audience
that follows them.
In a theater in Vigo they found that the average age was "that of our parents", but at festivals there are "super young kids", who are the ones who approach them to ask for selfies when they are in the pool.
«Yes, of all ages and of
all creeds
», the four say proudly.
The place where they have developed their new work symbolizes the title of the album.
«It has been
our prison
, because to be free you must first be slaves.
And we ourselves have enslaved ourselves because freedom costs,” says Chaparro.
The members of the group consider themselves “journalists” of music.
«When you stop for a year to prepare the album, you have financial problems because we are
day laborers of culture
: we only get paid when we work.
And releasing an album, with the videos and all the time dedicated to it, costs a lot.
"Subsistence comes from bowling because now they don't sell records like before," says Soria.
And Spotify?
EE
It's 0.000002 cents per listen.
You can't live off digital listening.
In music, there is no middle class.
There is the one who earns a lot and for the rest it seems like it is a hobby.
With this system young people suffer because the big bands of the past have already recovered their money.
RMC
Yes, the deception of abusive record companies ended, but the injustice of Spotify arrived.
After a year's confinement, Califato 3/4 arrives in top form for the tour that begins in Seville, at the
Cartuja Center
, on
March 2
.
The next confirmed date is at the
Apolo hall
in Barcelona, on March 15, and
Live Las Ventas
in Madrid, on the 16th. And there will be more concerts that are closing these days.
The most diverse collaborations: soccer players, actors and a flamenco singer
The new work by Califato 3/4 includes the most diverse collaborations: from soccer players who have collaborated on a video clip without charging anything, to actors, to a flamenco singer.
Mixture taken to the ultimate consequences.
The first video
Êcclabô by Libertá
, the single that gives name to the new album by Califato 3/4, narrates how the Earth has been destroyed and the musicians, with the help of the actors
Paco Léon
and
Almudena Amor
, the rapper
Foyone
and the soccer players
Borja Iglesias
and
Héctor Bellerín
seek a "new Andalusia" far from planet Earth.
"The two soccer players and the two actors came delighted and wanted to collaborate with us without charging anything. We must thank them because we know that their work costs a lot of money," says Manuel Chaparro.
The single
Andalucê Yorá
unites flamenco and avant-garde music.
In it, the flamenco singer Andrés de Jerez interprets some verses by the poet and playwright Miguel Romero Esteo (1930-2018), adopted son of the city of Málaga.
The video clip, written and directed by Juan Escribano Tamayo, makes a plea to the Andalusian exile through
a tribute to Pepa Flores
, better known as Marisol, and to the Andalusian workers expropriated far from their own land.
The lyrics symbolize "all the plundering that Andalusia has suffered," Chaparro summarizes.
In the single
Çegaorâ
their voices join Ángeles Rusó, Paula Margo, Anaisa García and Andrea Santalusía.
It is a "retrofuturist" tribute to the slavery of the Andalusian countryside and to the theme
Segaores
by the playwright Salvador Távora.
The singer of
No Me Pises Que Carga Chanclas
, Pepe Begines, collaborates and sings on the song
Xancla Lebantá
.
The single was forged on a trip to Asilah (Morocco) where Chaparro, Esteban Espada and Lorenzo Soria spent the end of the year in 2022. The video clip is directed by Diego Caro and David Alonso.