The area of the house and the large rooms to enjoy music have a memorable tradition. Private piano concerts in palatial settings during the 18th century had Mozart as his indisputable genius, touring the princely and imperial courts. In the following century, emulating the aristocracy, musical evenings in the salons of the bourgeoisie increased their social distinction. The piano became an iconic instrument of the bourgeois house. Although finally, musical performance moved to concert halls and public spaces, and the mass media and industry did the rest, delineating the sign of our time. Faced with this radical change in the author-public connection, now the young musician and visual artist Leon Guallart returns to the house as a significant sound space, and the reunion with a place that offers him a long-awaited comfort.
The prelude in Guallart's concerts is marked by the sound of a bell, steps ascending steps and the silent unexecuted note of crossing a threshold. Transition from very lived-in rooms to a living room and a welcome with domestic quality, a glass of wine and a stabilizing human dimension.
Leon Guallart – born in Barcelona in 1997 and the son of a couple of architects – is the creator of the Comfort cycle: home tour that takes place in “houses with pianos”. He has started it in some notable homes in his hometown, with large rooms that can accommodate an audience that identifies with the most intimate formats. They are homes in Barcelona that have in common belonging to renowned architectural professionals.
Houses with a piano and multiple floors, with splendid renovations: the main one in the neoclassical Plaza Reial by Beth Gali and Oriol Bohigas, the Gothic palace recreated by Benedetta Tagliabue-Enric Miralles in Ciutat Vella, the Architecture Workshop of Ricardo Bofill, in the old Sant Just Desvern cement factory. Also the family house of Leon Guallart in El Raval, with a minimalist design, awarded with a Premio Fad de Interiorismo in 1992. Two of Gaudí's jewels, La Pedrera and Palau Güell, have been added to the list.
The black shine of the Yamaha baby grand piano is certainly present in the snowy envelope, floors included, of his family home. “It's still like a white, abstract spaceship,” the musician explains to Magazine. I don't know if it's a museum, a house, a stage, a hospital....” From there begins his concern for bringing music to the protection of the domestic sphere. The uniqueness of each house has prompted him to reflect on what it essentially is. “What ultimately defines it is the people who live there and the activity that takes place in that space. I think concerts are a way to honor the house as such.”
Guallart, who lives between Barcelona and Los Angeles where he studies film, has been inspired by the house party format, common in the American city on the west coast. An opportunity that he values to “connect with the public on a human scale and redefine the traditional concept we have of our home.” But above all celebrate it. His Comfort album is set in the winter of a time of war, in indirect reference to the current state of things. And the term in English, specifically, “refers to a space of emotional security, in adverse times. The house is a bubble of family security, where you can feel protected, accompanied.”
Comfort: Home Tour plans to stop in Los Angeles, in houses designed by illustrious architects such as Neutra and Schindler, or the contemporary Frank Gehry, a Pritzker Prize winner who loves playing the piano. And reach the legendary Taliesin West house of architect Frank Lloyd Wright in Arizona. Guallart's voice and piano, meditative at times, with a romantic storm at times, find the best shelter from the outside elements on the stage of the house. That domestic dimension is also reflected in the cover of the album released in vinyl format. Designed by himself, he asked his grandmother to embroider the letters of the word Comfort with red thread on a piece of burlap.
