The Institut Ramon Llull and the prestigious New York venue join forces once again to present the United States premiere of 4132314, the experimental concert by Tarta Relena, Los Sara Fontan and Cocanha, which will be shown at the Alice Tully Hall of the Lincoln Center.
It is a project that brings together three artistic duos: the Barcelona vocal duo Tarta Relena, the Galician-Catalan experimental composers Los Sara Fontan, and the Occitan voice and percussion duo Cocanha. 4132314 is a co-production of Fabra i Coats: Fàbrica de Creació, which premiered in 2022 as part of the Grec Festival of Barcelona.
4132314 is a performance inspired by the sound and production patterns of old textile factories, as well as the memories and songs of their workers. The creation celebrates collective work, solidarity, sisterhood, and singing in everyday life. Tarta Relena, Los Sara Fontan and Cocanha came together for the first time as a sextet to research, compose and perform live 45 minutes of new work based on numerical patterns from textile production, old work songs, mechanical sounds and the stories of the factory workers.
The presentation of 4132314 at the Lincoln Center comes just a few weeks after the Catalan trombonist Alba Pujals performed there. And the Catalan presence doesn’t end there, as this year the Sant Andreu Jazz Band is the only European band to be invited to the Essentially Ellington competition organised by Jazz at Lincoln Center and Wynton Marsalis. In this context, on 8 May the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, directed by Joan Chamorro, will also perform at the Lincoln Center.
The collaboration between the Institut Ramon Llull and the Lincoln Center goes back a long way. As early as 2009, as part of the “Catalan Days” organised by the IRL in various venues across New York City, the conference “Clandestí: Forbidden Catalan Cinema Under Franco” was held there. Since then, other collaborations have followed: in 2012, the launch event for the “Montsalvatge Days” took place there; in 2023 La Petita Malumaluga presented its show The Moon in a Pot (a misunderstood show) at the Clark Studio Theater of the Lincoln Center, and La Sra Tomasa performed at the Lincoln Center’s outdoor space as part of the Summer for the City festival. This performance is the result of the IRL’s ongoing contact with the programming team of the New York venue and is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
Tarta Relena
Folk duo that defines itself as “frenzied and progressive Gregorian,” formed by the Barcelonans Marta Torrella and Helena Ros. The two singers began in 2016 with an a cappella exploration of different styles of vocal music, using the Mediterranean area as a reference context. Their repertoire ranges from traditional music to singer-songwriter material, with experimentation as their hallmark and the combination of vocal techniques as their creative driving force.
Los Sara Fontan
Galician-Catalan duo where the classical and contemporary elements of violinist Sara Fontán meet the polyrhythmic energy of Edi Pou (member of Za!, a touchstone in the European underground scene). Their focus is on live performance, which is why they don’t record albums: they are physical, adapt to the environment, and aim to escape the music production industry. They have performed in Spain, Portugal, France, Switzerland and Germany at a wide variety of festivals.
Cocanha
Cocanha is formed by Caroline Dufau (voice, string drum, hands and feet) and Lila Fraysse (voice, string drum, hands, feet and caxixi). Two distinctive voices blend into a polyphony driven by the pulse of string drums, feet and hands; with the Occitan language as their vocal ground, they bring to life repertoires from the Pyrenees, Gascony and Languedoc. Accompanied by string drums and body percussion, they return us to a natural sound, full of elegance and humour, that invites dancing.
