Caliphate 3/4: “We Andalusians have been crushed and today we are still a colony” | EUROtoday

Almost a thousand years in the past, there was already a wonderful orchard in what at present are the Buhaira gardens in Seville. It was in the course of the reign of Al-Mutamid, the poet monarch of the Sevillian taifa kingdom. Starting within the twelfth century, underneath the caliphate of Abu Yacub Yusuf, the inexperienced areas on this space have been expanded and a palace was constructed. Nine centuries after this imposing constructing was constructed, the members of the group Caliphate 3/4 -read 3 times 4, just like the compass, and never three quarters- they pose on the entrance to the Buhaira palace. It is the place chosen by the band shaped by two Sevillians –Manuel Chaparro (voice) and Lorenzo Soria (programming and percussion) – and two individuals from Malaga –Stephen Espada (low) and Sergio Ruiz (keyboards)- to speak about their new album Libertá Êclabôwhich launches this February 29.

The selection of this enclave shouldn’t be unintended. It connects with the vindication of the previous and the pleasure of feeling Andalusian that Caliphate 3/4 has carried in its DNA since its emergence in 2018. «Whoever is aware of the historical past of Andalusia is aware of that by no means, anyplace on the earth, nor in any civilization, Not even with the Medici in Italy, was there a congregation of so many cleverso many scientists, so many medical doctors and so many freethinkers like within the Caliphate,” says Chaparro. 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. Is he February 29which they have designated as the day of «new Andalusia»after 28-F, official day of the Andalusian community.

And what is this new Andalusia like? Is it a nation?

Stephen 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 Libertá Êclabô -slave of freedom, written with the phonemes of Andalusian speech-. With him, Caliphate 3/4 continues with the «futurist folklore» of his previous works, which is now nourished by «electronicsflamenco, guasa, Latin, Moorish things, other very fresh dance and even baroque style,” Soria lists.

Similar «revoltillo» It's one thing pure for the band. «Let's see, on all continents, individuals have blended their folklore with electronics. Why not with him 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 factors out, whereas the others nod.

Espada, underneath Caliphate 3/4, has a level in Technical Architecture, however has “always” been linked to literature and has numerous literary awards. The group didn’t meet both on the college or at literary competitions, however at night time in Seville, in probably the most underground and DJing in venues. «Years in the past, Chaparro was taking part in electronics and, in the course of the session, he stopped all the things and put in Rocío Jurado. And, after all, individuals went very loopy », she remembers.

Almost monastic life

The Caliphate 3/4 have spent a yr locked within the studio with their new job, main an virtually monastic life, with swimming within the mornings within the polideportivo of the San Pablo Polygon of Seville, the place they share the streets of the swimming pool with the grandparents who go to the programs. “I am a specialist in mothers, grandmothers, uncles and grandfathers,” Chaparro says jokingly, referring to the such a heterogeneous viewers that follows them. In a theater in Vigo they discovered that the common age was “that of our parents”, however at festivals there are “super young kids”, who’re those who strategy them to ask for selfies when they’re within the pool. «Yes, of all ages and of all faiths», the 4 say proudly.

The place the place they’ve developed their new work symbolizes the title of the album. “Has been our jail, 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 a year to prepare the album, you have financial problems because we are culture workers: 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 as a result of now they don't promote information like earlier than,” says Soria.

¿Y Spotify?

AND AND 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.

R. M.C. 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 shape for the tour that begins in Seville, in the Cartuja Centerhe March 2. The next confirmed appointment is in the Apollo room of Barcelona, ​​on March 15, and Live Sales from 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 Libertá Êclabôthe single that gives its name to the new album by Califato 3/4, tells how the Earth has been destroyed and the musicians, with the help of the actors Paco Leon y Almudena Lovethe rapper Foyone and the footballers Borja Iglesias y Hector Bellerin, they seek a “new Andalusia” far from planet Earth. “The two soccer gamers and the 2 actors got here delighted and needed to collaborate with us with out charging something. We should thank them as a result of we all know that their work prices some huge cash,” 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 the Andalusian workers expropriated far from their own land. The lyrics symbolize “all of the plundering that Andalusia has suffered,” Chaparro summarizes.

in the single What time? Ángeles Rusó, Paula Margo, Anaisa García and Andrea Santalusía join their voices. It is a “retrofuturist” tribute to the slavery of the Andalusian countryside and the theme Segaores by playwright Salvador Távora.

The singer of Don't Tread on Me I'm Wearing Flip FlopsPepe 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.

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