Roger Mas ★★★★
Place and date: The Poblenou Alliance (13/IV/2024)
During his time at the Empremtes festival, Roger Mas (voice, guitar) performed this Saturday in Barcelona El viatge, an experimental piece that Solsona has defined as “a movement towards the unknown.” He began to put it together – still under the name Tetàtotí – at the beginning of last year in a residence at the Convent d’Alcover, and it will still take some time to record it. The invention occupied the central section of a performance complemented by a tour of nine of the eleven albums that he has recorded since 1997, with special attention to Les cançons tel·lúriques (2008) and Totes les flors (2021). Session built with maestro Xavier Guitó (piano, keyboard), Ivan Dach (electric guitars), Miriam Encinas Laffitte (viola, dilruba, flutes...), Arcadi Marcet (double bass) and Oriol Roca (drums).
Following the maxim bequeathed to us by the psychedelic priest Timothy Leary (“turn on, tune in, drop out”), El viatge extends for half an hour. And although it is served in a single stroke, nine episodes are differentiated in its architecture corresponding to the various phases (the ghosts, the vision, the serenity...) of a journey that points towards (or beyond) the confines no longer of the mind, but of the soul. Instrumental segments, sung episodes and other recitations (including a visit to Mossèn Cinto's Mirmanda), marked a proposal in which Roger Mas would insert vigorous slogans (“endant les atxes, que el Sant Cristo va a les fosques!”), allusions to the sumpèctic formulated by Francesc Pujols, visions of pink clouds and a wise conclusion: “We all had a shot at the wing.” High and hallucinatory poetic flight that the singer-songwriter proposes to us in this journey, reinforced by a no less impressive musical script, from the subtle atmospheres of the beginning, to more obsessive and urgent phases. A festival of sensations in which broad strokes of the electric guitar in the style of David Gilmour coexisted with medieval echoes, elegant pianissimos and other sound juggling. Quite a trip, yes. And the good ones…
