At Every Turn, a New Discovery: The Sounds of Emerging Music at La Mercè

A multicolored Ferris wheel spins on the stage. One cabin goes up, the other goes down, and the lights surrounding it change to the rhythm of electronic sounds. It is part of the set design with which musician Asra3 presented his proposal at Barcelona Acció Musical (BAM), during the concerts held this weekend at the Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm on the occasion of La Mercè. But this small colorful Ferris wheel is more than a scenic element: its colored cabins, lights, and constant movement turn it into an almost hypnotic presence on stage.

But Asra3's Ferris wheel summarizes, almost unintentionally, the constant movement experienced at the Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm during this concert weekend within the framework of La Mercè. One proposal after another, each with its own rhythm, its sounds, and its way of understanding music, has occupied the stage: Argentine folklore, Afro-Latin rhythms, electronic music, urban music, experimental pop... As if each of the twelve concerts that could be seen this weekend occupied one of the cabins of this Ferris wheel: one after another, all different, but together forming a broad and diverse picture of emerging Catalan music, with styles and languages that coexist in the same space.

The programming of the Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm is designed, precisely, to bring this diversity closer to the public and give visibility to some of the proposals that are renewing the Catalan music scene. A desire to get closer that also extends to the way of experiencing concerts. Far from the multitudinous format of the big Mercè concerts, here artists and public share a much closer space. An opportunity for artists to put faces to their fans, which allows musicians to put faces to their fans and for fans to discover the person behind those songs they have listened to on repeat —and perhaps even exchange a conversation once the concert is over—. 

And it is only in this proximity that moments like the one starring Maig could occur, in charge of closing Sunday's day and, with it, the musical program at the Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm of the Festes de la Mercè. As she was already facing the last bars of her concert, delicate and with a nostalgic touch for the summer that is just ending —as she expresses in some of her most popular songs, such as Pluges d’agost and Tres estius més—, the artist decided to get off the stage and mingle with the audience to sing her final lyrics, surrounded by voices that knew her melodies by heart.

It is a scene that well summarizes the spirit of these concerts: proposals that do not need great artifices or large masses to connect with those who listen to them, and an audience that also lets itself be carried away by what happens around them. Some of them had arrived attracted by a specific artist, while others had only been attracted from the street by the music heard from the courtyard and, almost without having planned it, ended up entering the space and discovering a new artist. 

All this, while the atmosphere in this emblematic venue in the Eixample —the Antiga Fàbrica d’Estrella Damm, inaugurated in 1905 and today converted into a cultural space— invited to extend the visit. The smells coming from the food trucks, with sweet and savory proposals, and the beers that could be tasted in the same venue in the tastings organized between performances also invited to stay.

One turn, another sound

The proposals of Maig and Asra3 —two voices of emergent music with very marked personalities and very different sound universes—, however, have not been the only ones that have passed through the stage of the Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm during the weekend. Throughout the two days, other artists have completed a journey that has traversed very diverse styles, rhythms and ways of understanding music. 

On Saturday, Carmen Aciar opened the program with singer-songwriter music and Argentine folklore, while Angela Blackburn brought Afro-Latin rhythms to the stage with a session combining tropical electronic music, salsa, and sounds from the African diaspora. With Admire, music also incorporated movement: Mireia Gómez Rullan shared the live performance with her dancers and made choreographies an integral part of the proposal. But the day also left space for styles like electronic music and urban music by Cristina Len or for the immersive proposal by Bofirax. 

On Sunday, however, the journey began with Arar, the duo formed by Barcelona-based composer and performer Marina Tomás Amado and saxophonist Maria Cruz Millet. Guitar, saxophone, and voices built an intimate and experimental live performance, with a sound that invited close listening. Then came Mala Freixura, who completely changed the rhythm of the Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm with a proposal combining afro, house, disco, tropical bass, and funk, sounds that turned the venue into a large dance floor. 

The contrast returned with AL-V, who presented a more intimate proposal around death, memory, and legacy. For her part, Mercè Segura, under the artistic name MERCÈ, honored her name and could not miss the event. “Mercè could not miss La Mercè,” the artist joked between songs, referring to the coincidence with the festival that framed her concert. 

For Segura, who transformed the stage into a world of video games, dance, avatars, and electronic sounds, being able to perform at BAM was “a dream” and “an honor,” as she herself repeated throughout the concert, feelings also shared by other artists throughout the weekend. Two days in which the audience could move, like the cabins of the Ferris wheel in Asra3's set design, from one style to another: from Argentine folklore to tropical electronic music, from dance to urban music, from experimental pop to digital universes. A succession of proposals that allows discovering, with each turn, the different faces of an emerging Catalan music scene that continues to spin.