The year that has just begun coincides with the decision of large music groups in Valencian to temporarily leave the stage. The political change in the Generalitat and in the majority of city councils does not herald a favorable situation for a sector that has always maintained a vulnerable state of health. About all this and about his latest book -Vicent Torrent. La cançó popular (Sembra 2023) -, La Vanguardia talks with Josep Vicent Frechina, a music critic specializing in Mediterranean music who has written a biography about the Al Tall singer, a key figure in the history of Valencian music.
How did the idea of doing a biography about Vicent Torrent come about?
It was commissioned by Juan Diego Sanchis, manager of Pep el Botifarra and Torrent himself. Sanchis was already the instigator of his solo album and the idea of claiming a figure like Torrent's quickly had the complicity of the Sembra publishing house and mine. I had interviewed him on many occasions, I had studied and worked on his work and I had the urge to do something more powerful.
A necessary tribute now that the Torrent City Council has decided to remove its name from the municipal auditorium?
I think we are a country very in need of memory and we have a worrying tendency towards amnesia. We need to know where we come from and where we are. We very easily forget the complicated situation that our own culture is experiencing, with permanent hostility from some sectors of Valencian society, represented in some media and institutions, which deny the very identity of the language. Maintaining Valencian culture in this hostile environment requires an exercise in perspective. And Torrent helps with this.
Vicent Torrent is one of the most emblematic figures, with enormous work at all levels and he had to vindicate himself. Those of us who are from the generation of the 60s and 70s would not have known Almansa without the work of Al Tall or we would not have a certain vision of the country without this key group of the Transition. Torrent is one of our main cultural drivers. Al Tall accompanies us in our demands and changed our mental framework. That something as innocent as naming the audience in his town after Vicent Torrent generates controversy gives us an understanding of how urgent it is to do this memory exercise.
Let's make some spoilers, tell us a secret that you have discovered during the preparation of the biography.
The most interesting thing has been reconstructing the common thread of his thought. From intuitive beginnings to rounded thinking. From the first moment, he has the intuition that traditional music has to have vitality, have meaning in contemporary society, be up to date with the new times. His great contribution was not simply to recover the songs, but to rescue the musical language and give it meaning in contemporary times. It was an intuition and he turned it, through work, into an intellectual program. He made a profound and influential reflection. Artistically, but also with a very solid theoretical argument.
You comment that Torrent's work and seeding was key to the fruition of the current Valencian music scene. Because?
For many reasons. Al Tall was one of the first to put the dolçaina on stage and put it to modern use. They provided Valencians with a good dose of self-esteem with festive and self-celebration music. Valencianness could be celebrated in an alternative way. Furthermore, as he explained, he brought riproposta to the table, that idea of making modern songs with the resourceful expressions of traditional music.
Let's talk about the present. El Diluvi, Xavi Sarriá, Smoking Souls, it seems that 2024 is a year of goodbyes. For what is this?
There are several factors. The most important, in my opinion, is the generational one. Many groups are made up of young people who are already entering their adult phase and need a certain stability and escape from the precariousness associated with a musical career; always with the future hanging by a thread. When you are young, you can embark on certain adventures. But there comes a time when that costs more. It has also influenced that, during the pandemic, hiring was paralyzed and this made some consider whether or not to continue. The change in institutions does not help either. If it was already difficult to make music in Valencian with a friendly administration that made an effort, when that pillar falls, those who have doubts end up deciding.
We are already experiencing a psychosis with the departure of Obrint Pas, La Gossa Sorda, Aspencat or Orxata. Cycle changes have a positive part, which is the renewal of the scene. Other groups will now have an opportunity to become visible because the most powerful ones that are now withdrawing took up most of the hiring. The negative point is that there will no longer be as much of an audience. It's a natural dynamic. I don't see that there is a current crisis.
And what is the health of music in Valencian?
It continues to be a vulnerable health. Artistically it is still splendid, with new high-quality proposals, but there is no different audience growth to maintain the most risky proposals. It has not been possible to build the public. The arrival of À Punt has had almost no impact and, for the moment, it is not helping. There are many very important proposals that do not find space.
How can music in Valencian survive this new context? Can you be optimistic?
The boom in music in Valencian came in a horrible context. Obrint Pas triumphed in a very complicated situation, we already know. Thus, we have to learn the lessons from then, see how it was achieved, from the self-management of the musicians - with very successful experiences such as the Ovidi Montllor Collective - and the complicity with civil society. Now, in the face of political change, society is more organized and that associative network has to be the cushion on which the Valencian music scene relies.
