Pau Riba: "Fifty years later, 'Dioptria' is still relevant"

In 1969, the first volume of went on saleDioptria, a work by Pau Riba unanimously considered the most important rock album in Catalan. A more than justified consensus, even if only for once. Coinciding with the anniversary, Riba begins the tourDioptria 50on April 12 at the Joventut theater in L'Hospitalet (Barnasants Festival), with De Mortimers as the base band, and a crowded list of guests including Sisa, Albert Pla, Joan Garriga, and the Orchestra Fireluche. The planned tour will pass through several Catalan cities and beyond, as on May 8 it will also land at the Fun House venue in Madrid.

This anniversary tour coincides with a carefully reissued vinyl edition by Munster Records, which includes both the first volume of Dioptria and the second, which came out in 1970.

It is a replica of what was not. Fifty years later, the project has come out exactly as I had it in my head: the two albums together, and details like the color scheme of the lyric sheets, which originally should have been those of the republican flag, and which did not come out in the correct order, I don't know if by accident or not.

Also reproduced is a text from the company Edigsa, attributed to Ermengol Passola, which replicates your own written presentation of the album.Yes, I had written a poetic prose text saying: I'm leaving, I've had enough, I'm fed up with this society... He [Passola] thought this was too daring, and he had the itch to say: well, Pau Riba is a young man who says that now, but he'll grow up and change his mind... all with a very paternalistic tone, and speaking as if on behalf of all Catalans. On the one hand it's ridiculous, but on the other it's very surreal.Seen now, it also seems ridiculous that they wouldn't let you present the album at the Palau de la Música.Well, that was part of a slightly longer chain of events. My first intention was to present it at the Liceo. I wanted to put a car on stage, and use that car (the doors, the horn, the engine...) as an instrument. I had been very interested since I was young in the whole concrete music movement, and I had gone to listen to works like thePiece for chainsawof Mestres Quadreny. At the Liceo, they told me no. And when I proposed it at the Palau, also. They argued that Raphael had sung there recently and that his fans had destroyed the seats. It seems Raphael was dangerousdespite himself... In short, I finally presented the album at the Price, and it's funny that at that time they only wanted my music in a place where they did boxing.

"It's about the classic, petty-bourgeois, Catholic family. In my house, my mother and two great-aunts took care of everything, and my father was the one who brought the money to fill the fridge. Starting from these roles, I made an association between the old society and women, asking why these women didn't rebel."

Speaking of boxing, the critics who covered the Price's presentation really beat you up, didn't they?Yes, yes. Not everything was my fault... The opening act was Música Dispersa, who played for about an hour and a half. And when we came out, from the second song on, the owner of the venue was already telling Toti Soler [Om guitarist] backstage that our time was up. I admit that at that moment I also didn't have the disposition to be arock and roll star. The first volume of Dioptria, recorded with the group Om, has a more electric pulse, while the second is more folk-psychedelic. Why this contrast?I had discovered the people of Om as companions of Maria del Mar Bonet on the albumI would give myself to whoever wanted meI liked it because they sounded like an international group, something that had never been seen here, and I went to talk to them right away. But between the recording of the first volume and the second, I went to Formentera to check what the hell LSD was... and everything changed there. After the experience, it seemed to me that the sound of Om (not the people, mind you?) was, so to speak, too capitalist. I had become a hippie, and I wanted something more in tune with natural cycles and the earth. I asked the people from Música Dispersa to accompany me on Dioptria II, but only two of them, Albert Batiste and Sisa, accepted. Although if I tell you the truth, when I listen to the album I don't really know where Sisa is...There are also thematic differences between one album and another.In the first, my/our traditional Spanish chauvinism weighs heavily. It's about the classic, petty-bourgeois, Catholic family. In my house, my mother and two great-aunts took care of everything, and my father was the one who brought in the money to fill the fridge. Starting from these roles, I made an association between the old society and women, asking why these women didn't rebel. In the second, I talk more about myself, about my point of view. This is where it isThe static man [The static man], a theme that Jaume Arnella had commissioned me. He told me to make a song based on a phrase that I don't know if it's from Fidel Castro or Che Guevara that says: you don't have to wait for the end of capitalism sitting at your doorstep. And of course, when I sang it to himThe Static Man, Arnella told me it was better if I kept the matter to myself.

Luckily, this feminist force exists, which is even taking down the identitarian one, and I like that. I believe that little by little we will move towards a matriarchy, or towards a pater-matriarchy, which would perhaps be the most correct path.

Half a century has already passed, of everything. When you approach these songs... don't you feel a certain vertigo?Man, there's a certain je ne sais quoi. But it still gives me a certain pride to see that something I did fifty years ago is still relevant. Although I feel identified. When I sing these songs, it doesn't seem to me that I'm going back to the past. I don't need to put myself in the context of a bygone era, although it's clear that there have been serious changes. At that time, for example, the virtual space had not burst in as it has now, nor did we have communication tools like the current ones.Speaking of social changes, don't you think we are currently experiencing a very conservative wave again?Yes, these things depend a lot on the well-being of society. As well-being increases, so does the reactionary thing. When you're sprawling on the sofa with a cigar, you don't want to hear about revolutions or revolutionaries. But if you see that you can't make ends meet, you're already willing to go out and shout a bit. The point is that now the identity issue mobilizes more than the monetary one. Luckily, there is this feminist force that is even taking down the identity one, and I like that. I believe that little by little we will move towards a matriarchy, or towards a pater-matriarchy, which would perhaps be the correct thing. But it doesn't seem to me that one can reach pater-matriarchy without first going through a matriarchy, or at least a powerful feminist revolution.