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Next Thursday, Formentera gets ready for theatre show for the whole family

Foto-cletaThe Formentera Council's Office of Culture and Festivities reports that next week, on Thursday December 28 at 5.30pm, the island's cinema will lend its stage to el Viatge a la Font de Xocolata, a family-friendly production included in the eleventh children's theatre mostra, or festival. Also featured as a part of the homegrown performing arts initiative “l'Illa a escena”, the performance runs fifty minutes and tickets (€3) are available at the box office the day of the event. TALENT IB, a programme of the regional government's Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics, claims el Viatge a la Font de Xocolata on its circuit as well.

Story
El Viatge a la Font de Xocolata (literally, Voyage to the Chocolate Source) blends acting, puppets, masks and other assorted visual elements that make Cleta's story all the more resonant. Cleta, perennially perched atop her bicycle, is the keeper of one thousand and one tales. She learns of petroleum, its origins, its uses, its misuses, etc. On her travels at sea from land to land, the heroine observes that profusions of the mineral aren't always met with celebration.

El Viatge's audience doesn't begin and end with children. Their accompanying adults will enjoy it as well. The story and the lesson it embodies will captivate grown-ups and kids alike. And all that, without falling into the trap of too much drama. On the contrary, el Viatge's tale is one of positivity, optimism and emotion.

The company
Ferro Productions, with, at the helm, renowned actor and cultural manager Toni Gomila, is a stage production and cultural management company founded in 1998 and professionalised in 2003. Over the years they've focussed on finding and cultivating entertainment and theatre troupes for both kids and adults and have worked tirelessly in the performing arts in the Balearic Islands.

Formentera invites Cris Juanico and the Ai Ai Ai for Christmas concert

Foto cris juanicoThe Formentera Council's Office of Culture and Festivities wishes to announce an evening of Minorcan music and Catalan rumba, this Saturday, December 16, at the hands of Cris Juanico and the Ai Ai Ai. The free concerts will take place in the Sant Ferran festival tent from 11.00pm.

Cris Juanico presents 13, his latest effort and first ever compilation
Tretze cançons desordenades + Tretze peces retrobades is the Cris Juanico's first and only compilation to date. The name (tretze means “thirteen” in Catalan) is at once a nod to the artist's ledger of solo work and the occasion to assemble the crowd-pleasers, deep cuts and rarities. Transcending the standard limitations of a collection, the album is a monument of the artist's research and toil as he worked to breathe new life into his own solo work, collaborations and life experiences.

 

Thirteen years have passed since 2004's Memòria,  Juanico's first release as a solo artist. It's a number that allowed him to arrive at a personal, altogether unique selection of career milestones, all part of a two-disc set that also features thirteen assorted rarities and collaborations.

With its faithful account of Juanico's career in music, likely the only thing unfamiliar in this collage of songs —anecdotes and experiences, lyrics and melodies— is the track listing. In undertaking the project, the singer cast his gaze to the past in order to move forward and create something new.

The first of two CDs rests on thirteen tracks that span Cris Juanico's musical catalogue, and contains jewels from Ja T'Ho Diré, Menaix a Truà, Tabaluga, Original Jazz Orquestra and the artist's own handiwork.

The second disc, thirteen uncovered tracks plus a handful of special collaborations with premier musicians and close friends —Toni Xuclà, Joan Valent, Gossos, Projecte Mut, the Simfònica de Cobla i Corda de Catalunya, Àngel Gómez, Van de Kul, Nina da Lúa and Sa Fàbrica de Músics gospel choir among them—handling vocals, songwriting and production. There are also three never-before released tracks: one features Benejam, another was written for the Balearic ornithological society's SOS Menorca and a third represents Juanico's contribution to «La mar i en Pop,» an exhibition.

Celebrating 25 years of Catalan rumba, Ai Ai Ai prepares to share new material with Formentera
Following the passing of one of Catalan rumba's leading lights, Gato Pérez, in 1990, two of Pérez's musicians, “Rafalitu” Salazar and Pep Lladó formed Ai Ai Ai. Their mission, to keep the genre alive and use Catalan in more than a passing fashion, may appear today natural, but it was once profoundly transgressive. Henceforth, the Ai Ai Ai have stubbornly cultivated and brought to the genre their own special touch. Today, with rumba's position in the Catalan catalogue of cultural heritage widely accepted, the group's mission has become to see the form gain recognition from Unesco as a feature of intangible world heritage.

The musical winds have shifted over the years. There was the Olympic explosion of Los Manolos and el Peret. The rise of Catalan rock. The arrival on the scene of the fusion styles of Dusminguet and Manu Chao. The success of Manel and their brethren in new pop. Through it all, the Ai Ai Ai have remained true to their particular take on music. Now, with twenty-five years, five commercial releases and hundreds of concert performances under their belts, the group is ready and raring as ever. With a forthcoming commemorative effort to include not only new material and reboots of old songs, but also “Que no, que no” a previously unreleased composition by el Gato revisited with help from Joan Garriga and Marià Roch of Troba Kung-Fú. They'll have a seven-man band in tow when the group arrives on the island December 16, including cherished Catalan gypsy “Rafalitu” Salazar and Jordi Gas of Jarabe de Palo and Salseta del Poble Sec i Sau fame. Backed by new hits or old classics, the group's mission is still to get crowds dancing the Catalan rumba, whether with fan favourites like Sota la palmera, Bar la rumba, Carrer cavallers or the legendary Maquinolandera, with its verse for Formentera: "Cap a Formentera / Que tu no tens espera / Agafen de la meva / Vigila la cartera / Ohoh, ohoh Ohoh, ohoh".

Taking stock of disinterment at Sant Ferran cemetery

Foto conclusions politicsFormentera Council president Jaume Ferrer, Balearic culture minister Fanny Tur and Luís Ruiz, chief of the Eivissa-Formentera memory forum, gathered today in the administration's former plenary hall to present the conclusions of the effort afoot since November 29 to exhume remains at the Sant Ferran cemetery.

The disinterment was paid for with a €16,780 Govern grant for the Fòrum per la Memòria d'Eivissa i Formentera and a €4,000 contribution from the Formentera Council. Work was overseen by forensic archaeologist and anthropologist Almudena García-Rubio and a crew formed by Juanjo Marí Casanova, Glenda Graziani, Paqui Carmona, Pau Sureda, Sergi Moreno and Nicholas Márquez-Grant.

The impulse behind the undertaking was to unearth the remains of five individuals —Jaume Ferrer Ferrer (Jaume de na Morna), Josep Ribas Marí (Pep de Baix), Joan Tur Mayans (Joan de can Pep Damià), Jaume Serra Juan (Jaume de can Mariano d'en Corda) and Vicent Cardona Colomar (Vicent de can Fumeral)— executed on March 1, 1937 in the Sant Ferran cemetery.

As part of the undertaking, crews performed various targeted digs on and adjacent to the 125-square-metre lot (six and five, respectively) which has been used as a burial ground since 1903. Inspections inside the cemetery followed conventional wisdom about where the interred remains might lie: beside the cemetery entrance, underneath headstones built in 1956 and 1984, below another gravesite and in a portion of the cemetery without grave markers.

Popular memory again directed the probes outside the cemetery walls, conducted with the help of excavating machinery. Patches of cement found on the southeast wall served to confirm the hypothesis that holes were pocked into the walls by executioners' bullets. Four bullets were detected as well; one wedged into the wall was uncovered with the help of a metal detector.

The major discoveries emerged thanks to investigation of skeletal remains, which suggested the bodies of the five executed were at some point transported to the ossuary to make room in the cemetery for new burials, then a common practice with ageing remains.

Crews unearthed a piece of a humerus bone and two fragmented skulls bearing firearm damage not unlike others found in Civil War burial sites. According to specialists on the crew, the marks are clearly the result of injuries sustained close in time to the victims' death, rather than damages inflicted during the remains' keeping in the ossuary.

The crew of specialists are carrying out two checks to confirm the skeletons belonged to the individuals in question. The first is a review of the civil registry. At present, workers have checked entries from 1991 to 1994 and confirmed the absence among the 156 deaths catalogued of any caused by impact of a projectile, which would indicate that the three bone fragments might indeed correspond to one of the five victims.

The second test involves DNA cross-checking of the remains and living relatives of the victims. All five families have agreed to participate in the examination, which could produce results in as soon as two to four months.

This Saturday's free concert 'Retrobada' is among hottest entries on Christmas 2017 programme

Formentera concert 2007This Saturday, December 9, the Formentera Council's culture department will host “Retrobada. Una nit a Formentera,” an evening of performances by Isidor Marí, Miquel Brunet, Aires Formenterencs, Imaràntia, Eduard Riera and Pep Lluís García. To culture secretary Susana Labrador, the free concerts from 8.30pm in the island's cinema are a standout part of this year's Christmas season and promise be a “night to remember”.

On December 29, 2007, Isidor Marí, the Aires Formenterencs and musician Miquel Brunet took the stage to play before the audience at the island's cinema. That concert, which lives on in the minds of the crowd that night in the Sant Francesc hall, is the driving impulse behind the push to revisit the effort for audiences today. “It will be an event steeped in that blend of creative energy unique to the islands,” pledged Councillor Parellada.

Isidor Marí, founder of the mythical group UC, has had a long, storied solo career, most recently cementing his performing chops on a CD in which he paid tribute to Bob Dylan with 14 of the American musician's songs translated into Catalan. A close relationship with the Aires Formenterencs (formed on the island in March 1989 by Xumeu Joan, Xicu Ferrer and Santi Marí) laid the groundwork for that mythical concert in 2007.

Joining them is singer-songwriter Maria José Cardona. If Cardona has logged frequent collaborations with Aires Formenterencs over the years and is one of rock group 4 de Copes's founding members, she also claims the duo Imaràntia as her alma mater. Pianist and producer Miquel Brunet is Cardona's other half in Imaràntia is pianist and producer Miquel Brunet and he maintains close artistic and personal ties with Formentera. His recording and production experience with the Formentera sound spans nine albums: all of Aires Formenterencs' LPs, a collection of traditional music titled “Caramelles de Formentera,” and Xumeu Joan's “Flautäria,” a celebration of flute music in the Pityuses.

Filling out the line-up are two world-class Mediterranean musicians: Eduard Riera on violin and Pep Lluís Garcia, one of the most in-demand and acclaimed percussionists in jazz. In a fine display of creative capital in the islands, these artists will draw from a catalogue that covers a breadth of styles as they present RETROBADA Una nit a Formentera. The show's title, near to “reunion” in English, stands as an unmistakeable nod to the revisiting of that artistry that was present on the stage in 2007.

Over twenty plus songs, audiences will hear a confluence of musical styles as the eight musicians are themselves morphed by the encounter, a feat of far-flung sensorial synergy. The subject matter is diverse: there are celebrations of nature's generosity, pleas for social justice that colour the broader narrative of commitment to the Nation, and displays of lovers' pining. Of course, we'll find the odd serving of humour thrown into the sonic mix, too.

The evening's main draw will be the very permanence and constance that the performers have come to represent over their varied artistic trajectories. Maintaining that their faith in their roots fuels their scorning of purisms, the group has one commitment: perform and blaze new trails on stage.

Christmas holiday season officially under way

Foto nadales 20171The Christmas 2017 kick-off came yesterday in the form of a concert of holiday carols by the children of El Pilar de la Mola and Mestre Lluís Andreu primary schools. “Cantam Nadales” got started in plaça de la Constitució at 5.00pm.

Though scheduled for Friday, the evening performance, together with a tree and decoration lighting ceremony, was delayed due to inclement weather. Attending residents enjoyed complementary hot chocolate the show.

Wet weather was again behind the postponing of the Christmas Market opening. It was pushed back from Friday to Saturday morning. All of Formentera is encouraged to come out for the market. It will be open from 11.00am to 3.00pm and again from 5.00pm to 12 midnight until January 7.

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