Archipelago

This first edition of Archipelago was enveloped in drone music and minimalism, exploring its influences and unexpected offshoots. The programme included key figures of experimentalism such as the French composer Éliane Radigue and the New York-based Japanese sound artist Yoshi Wada — both linked to minimalism and Fluxus, respectively. These “pioneering” figures were also joined by younger artists who, despite sharing certain compositional roots with Eastern music, adopt different formal approaches. For this particular edition, the artists presented commissioned and unreleased works, with the exception of Éliane Radigue’s Trilogie de la mort (Trilogy of Death), performed in its entirety by Emmanuel Holterbach for the first time in Spain.

Participants: Severine Beata and Javi Álvarez, Emmanuel Holterbach, iNSANLAR, Agnès Pe, Damián Schwartz, and Yoshi and Tashi Wada

In its second edition, Archipelago reasserted its intention to present listening as a form of both knowledge and aesthetic pleasure. This edition saw Rubén Coll join the curatorial project, which set forth more comprehensive research into the feeling of exhaustion that can be perceived in the West’s experimental scene, whereby the relationship between formal rupture and progress often proves unconvincing. The participating artists questioned the universality of experimentation precisely as it had been expounded in some of Europe’s and the USA’s major cities, often looking to vindicate the non-Western roots of their music.

Participants: AMMAR 808, Clara de Asís, DJ LAG, Errorsmith, Cedrick Fermont, Hashigakari, Áine O’Dwyer, Janneke van der Putten, Nadah El Shazly, Tarawangsawelas & Rabih Beaini, Toukadime and TUTU.

The 2019 edition explored the concept of tradition: a term associated with conservatism and regression in the face of change, but with a meaning that implies the transfer of knowledge from one person to another, from one generation to the next. Thus, the programme featured not only artists that experiment with non-Western roots, but also shone a light on noise, singeli and dance music, genres which subvert any attempt at classification via traditional forms such as electroacoustic, gnawa and traditional Kurpie music, as well as music from the nearby Madrid mountain range and the Galician bagpipes.

Participants: Saba Alizadeh, Asmâa, Kolida Babo, Rashad Becker, Lea Bertucci, Chulapeiras, Hamzaoui and Bnat Timbouktou, Gaba, Nina García, Ipek Gorgun, Miguel Nava and Rafa Martín, Bamba Pana & Makaveli, Psicolabio, Síria, R. Vincenzo, Lechuga Zafiro and Żywizna (Raphael Rogiński + Genowefa Lenarcik).

Organised at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, this edition of Archipelago adopted an unusual format: all performances took place in the Nouvel Building’s Auditorium 400 with a quadrophonic arrangement of sound. Placing the stress on the physicality of sound and physical presence opposite streaming, DJ-led listening sessions were put forward and drew inspiration from the experience of diaspora, in addition to concerts that sought to reinvent the popular and speculate on what will come and be built in a highly unpredictable future.

Participants: Cher-ee-lee, Lucrecia Dalt and Jokkoo (Baba Sy & Mbodj), Jessica Ekomane and Tarta Relena.

This fifth edition tackled the complexity of the post-traumatic effects of lockdown and crisis, responding to this situation by focusing on the local scene, realised with Atomizador and his approach to psychodelia from the instrumentation that characterises historical Western music. Marta De Pascalis, a Berlin-based composer from Rome, explored the complex ramifications of contemporary electronic music through the filter of southern European tradition, while non-hegemonic rhythmic innovations — one of the festival’s core areas of interest — found a space in the session of De Schuurman, a key figure in the evolution of bubbling, a music genre originating from Afro-Dutch postcolonial diaspora and highly influential, despite its limited exposure.

Participants: Atomizador, Marta De Pascalis and De Schuurman

Starting from the image of the ship Ever Given stranded on the Suez Canal in 2021, the sixth edition of Archipelago reflected on the material questions that influence music, for instance the transportation of raw materials and goods and the importance of ports, colonial routes and ocean currents, in addition to forced migrations. Through a string of concerts fusing traditional music and experimentation, Archipelago recapitulated, reinterpreted and overhauled learning related to the common history of traditional music to date.

Participants: Erkizia + Cantizano, Edna Martinez, Pujllay Masis, Mazaher and Mohammad Reza Mortazavi.

The 2023 edition brought down the curtain on a theoretical and geopolitical journey through the musical mutations of our times which was set in motion in 2017 by José Luis Espejo and then jointly with Rubén Coll from 2018 onwards. The island of El Hierro, halfway between Africa, Europe and South America, is a metaphor for music that circumvents the Western media’s powerful grid, which in turn rules the taste, presence and even fees of musicians from the experimental scene. In this final edition, El Hierro will once again be the centre of the world.

Participants: The Folkloric Ensemble of Sabinosa, DJ Travella and DJ Diaki, Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado, and Tenores di Bitti "Mialinu Pira".

This series of videos, made by Machines Desirantes Buro, documents the concerts performed in the first edition of Archipelago, in 2017, and is complemented with extensive interviews with the participants. This particular video features the concerts of Severine Beata and Javi Álvarez + iNSANLAR. 

This series of videos, made by Machines Desirantes Buro, documents the concerts performed in the first edition of Archipelago, in 2017, and is complemented with extensive interviews with the participants. This particular video features the concerts of Yoshi and Tashi Wada + Damián Schwartz.

This series of videos, made by Machines Desirantes Buro, documents the concerts performed in the first edition of Archipelago, in 2017, and is complemented with extensive interviews with the participants. This particular video features the concerts of Emmanuel Holterbach and Agnès Pe.

This video, made by Banda Negra, assembles the interventions from the second edition of Archipelago and includes interviews with some of its participants, exploring the possibility of new forms of listening from different twentieth-century sound recordings with a desire to unearth alternatives to the restraints of a canon built from now-exhausted genealogies and narratives.   

This video, made by Banda Negra, documents the third edition of Archipelago, exploring the concept of tradition: a term associated with conservatism and regression opposite change, but with a meaning that implies the transfer of knowledge, from one person to another, from one generation to the next. 

This video, made by Banda Negra, documents and contextualises the process of mediation, learning and performance of Udlot Udlot (1975), by Philippine composer José Maceda.

This video, made by Javi Álvarez and Irene de Andrés, reflects the narrative of the 2022 edition of Archipelago. The narration takes us through centuries-old colonial routes for the transportation of goods and cargo, routes which remain today and brought about cultural exchanges that impacted music.

From 2018 onwards, the Archipelago concert series invited the audience to delve deeper into the complexity of the contemporary world through listening, seeking to foreground music genres and modes of listening which provide an alternative to European and US cultural centres. This video, made by Javi Alvárez and Irene de Andrés, documents the seventh, and final, instalment of Archipelago, which was centred on El Hierro, a volcanic island which was considered prime meridian for centuries. Located halfway between Africa, Europe and South America, the island is also a metaphor for all music that circumvents the Western media’s powerful grid.

This edition featured the screening of the film Eles transportan a morte (2021), by film-maker’s Helena Girón and Samuel M. Delgado, from Galicia and Tenerife, respectively; a performance by the Folkloric Ensemble of Sabinosa; music by DJ Travella from Tanzania and Malian DJ Diaki; and a concert by the Sardinian ensemble Tenores di Bitti “Mialinu Pira”.

This podcast, written and hosted by Rubén Coll and José Luis Espejo, presents the testimony of artists who participated in the 2020 edition of Archipelago, reflecting on how a cultural event is assembled by considering, for instance, the political and commercial structures that underpin our precarious music communities.

The series shares, for the first time, the recordings of three concerts which comprised the 2021 edition.