Disk by disk, and there are now eleven episodes, Roger Mas has left his revival stamp on a genre with such a deep tradition in the Catalan imaginary as the songwriter, combining mysticism and irony, a gift for translucent tones and ‘ a certain sensory transcendence with views to the other side of the mirror. Now that almost everything is at least 25 years old, it should no longer be surprising the Solsona troubadour commemorates exactly five decades in the trade and that he does so without complacency: there’s that new album, ‘Totes les flors’, which toured completely this Sunday at the Auditori (Room 2), framed in the first weekend of Barnasants.
It was a performance that condensed its qualities, even without resorting to the repertoire of classical music, because ‘Totes les flors’ has something of an anthology, with premiere songs, but which expresses a wide repertoire of expressive ways: the misleading variability of the title track (the girl spreading the flowers and the one trampling them with pleasure) and the spiritual memory of ‘Tu vols àngels xisclant’; the rumbera and mischievous ‘Amb la polla i amb l’ou’, dedicated to Carme Ruscalleda, and the tribute to the “creative genius”, with a mariachi touch, from ‘Des del pont de la ciència’. In ‘Mort, qui t’ha mort’ she jokingly came to tell us that it is not power that people want to intoxicate with bread and circuses, but that it is rather the power that demands it, and in ‘Si us blau’ he revived a blues that stuck with the guitar pick of a learned guest for years, Quico Pi de la Serra.
enchanted songbook
Vote on his point of seriousness with double background, in a very fluid dialogue with his mates, those with a long history (the pianist Xavier Guitó and the bass player and double bass player Arcadi Marcet) and that secret weapon called Míriam Encinas Laffitte, who the songs wrapped in Indian spices (the dilruba) and the application of flutes and percussion. Roger Mas performed with them his songbook, illuminated by a deep-rooted forest spell, as in the rescues of ‘Les tres germanes’ (one of the four quotes from ‘La casa d’enlloc’, 2010, an album that he dedicated to the recently deceased Ramon Muntaner), ‘El rei dels verns’ or the traditional English ‘Jordi’.
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Mas overlooked his most pop album (‘Mística domèstica’, 2005, produced by Raül Refree), as well as his most metaphysical one (‘Les cançons tel·lúriques’, 2008), but there was a nod to the 25th anniversary of his career with distant pieces What ‘I’m going to assecar the feather…’ (which he recorded on his day with the choir of teachers Sisa and Pau Riba) and ‘Volant’, which reappeared in full ultramontane power. Compositions with which he reminded us that his thing, that stubborn trajectory of a troubadour in uncertain times, is still a prodigy and a gift, because, as he slipped into ‘Le chansonnier miraculeux’, the singer-songwriter becomes you and the song heals you.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com