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Tarta Relena:Time and distance collapse in the music of Catalan folk duo Tarta Relena. With little more than their voices and a decidedly contemporary take on oral repertoires dating back hundreds of years, Marta Torrella and Helena Ros revisit and interpret the far corners of Mediterranean musical tradition. The two singers embrace the perspective that folklore is living and ever-changing—therefore mouldable with modern instruments now within reach to provide new meaning, but without leaving aside the innate origins. Indeed, Tarta Relena re-sing songs from ancient Crete, Corsica, Mallorca, Menorca, and retell the stories of powerful characters such as Hildegard of Bingen, Virgin Mary, and the Paixu tribe of women in Afghanistan, while subtle electronic pulses and rippling effects run through the background. Perhaps the strong point of the project is the complexity in its simplicity; the maximum expression with minimum elements. The two singers have so far released three highly-prized albums, Ora Pro Nobis, Intercede Pro Nobis, and Fiat Lux, respectively, in which they go on to sing in Spanish, Catalan, Greek, Latin, English, and even the Judeo-Spanish language of Ladino, also known as Sefardí.
The duo began in 2016 as a project of the two singers to explore a cappella the sonorities of different styles of vocal music. Far from wanting to create a stamp of the traditional and to define the Mediterranean, Tarta Relena wants to make its own a repertoire that goes from music of oral tradition to songs of author that in one way or another are related to the geographical area of the Mediterranean.
Tarta Relena sings from the perspective that what we call folklore is a living and moving repertoire. Therefore, this reality is mouldable and can be reinterpreted with the instruments and sonorities that we now have within our reach. A key tool is the electronics with which they re-signify the melodies without leaving aside their origins. The study and knowledge of the path and the contexts that have given rise to these musics opens the doors of experimentation towards new meanings. In their work there is also a desire to play at blurring the concept of authorship, bringing together anonymous traditional melodies and newly created songs under the same umbrella, treating them in the same way and placing oral transmission, the central element of tradition, at the center.
accessibility: space is on the second floor up a flight of stairs.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The MAAS Building & 5th Side, 1325 N Randolph St,Philadelphia,PA,United States
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