root salad Coetus
It’s Iberian percussion central with this Spanish big band. Bas Springer meets director Aleix Tobias.
C
oetus are a Spanish folk band with a mission: to showcase all kinds of traditional musical styles from the Iberian Peninsula, many of which
are little-known. The main ingredients of this remarkable and original group are a vast range of percussion instruments. Throughout history, percussion instruments have been used to accompany songs, processions, festivities and dances but by bringing them to the fore, Coetus create a new, unique language. They take their inspiration from traditional melodies and rhythms which they provide with new and contemporary arrangements. Led by singer Eliseo Parra, one of Spain’s leading performers and researchers of folk music, the seventeen musicians whip up a lot of energy on stage.
At the annual world music expo, Babel Med, held back in March in Europe’s cul- tural capital Marseille, the musicians of Coetus presented a series of exuberant folk songs, to which the enthusiastic audi- ence responded by clapping their hands and stomping their feet.
Aleix Tobias, percussionist, singer and director, provided the background:
“I used to play with Eliseo Parra and his group, one of the most interesting and innovative Spanish musicians of the past 20 years. He began as a rock musician, became interested in jazz and Caribbean music and ended up discovering Spanish folk music. Parra is fond of old Spanish folk tunes and he loves to revive them.”
“From Eliseo I learned a lot about traditional Spanish music. Six years ago I got the idea to form a group with all kind of percussion instruments. Percussion usually has a sup- porting role, but I wanted to form a group in which it takes the lead. When I started talk- ing with musicians about my plans, I got a lot of reactions. The curious thing is that the same musicians who showed up at the very first rehearsal, are all still in the group.”
Coetus consists of twelve percussionists, three singers (Eliseo Parro, Ana Rossi and Judith Nedderman), a bass player and a flautist. Tobias explains about the repertoire.
“We play traditional
music with arrangements for a big orchestra. The songs origi- nate from all regions of Spain
and Portugal: The Balearic islands, Catalo- nia, Portugal, Castile, Asturias, Galicia, León, etc. Outside Spain most people only are familiar with flamenco but the Iberian peninsula has much more to offer.”
“The vast majority of our repertoire were original tunes with only voices but we made contemporary arrangements. We have a lot of work songs but also dance songs. The lyrics express the idiosyncrasies of each people from all those regions. In Galicia people speak differently than they do in Catalonia for instance, but the topics of the lyrics of all those different regions are more or less the same.”
On their second CD Entre Tierras
(2012, Temps Records), which was financed by crowd-funding, Coetus combine songs about love, desires and nature with tradi- tional dance music from Galicia and Sala- manca, working chants from Valencia and Gran Canaria, popular songs from Castile and a traditional lullaby from Valencia.
Why is the band called Coetus?
“Coetus is Latin for union and reunion. I chose this name because I want a reunion of all those percussion instru- ments and regional music styles they rep- resent. By mixing them together you dis- cover that there are more similarities than differences.”
“W
e use many percussion instruments like
tambourines, rods, jars, mortars, pans, drums,
kettledrums and rustic drums. But we also play very unusual instruments like the botella (bottle), almirez (pestle) and paella. I don’t mean the food paella but the spoon which is used to make paella. Many old instruments were originally kitchen utensils which became instruments because these were the only things people had in their houses.”
Asked about the popularity of folk music in Spain he answers that “There is a small folk revival in Spain, although this differs from region to region. In general folk music is more popular in the country- side than in cities. Sometimes our music is played on the radio although the mass media doesn’t pay attention to us because our music is not commercial.”
“I am very happy that musicians these days are much more open to other genres than, let’s say, 20 years ago. In those days jazz musicians played jazz, pop musicians played pop and classical musicians stuck to classical music. Today more and more musi- cians are pushing their boundaries by work- ing together with musicians from other gen- res. That’s a very positive development.”
www.coetus.tk F 21 f
Photo: Judith Burrows
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