Wapapura Website

The website is now officially operative. From now on to find out what is going on with Wapapura and hear more music please check out the site:

www.wapapura.org

Thanks and hope to see you there.

Flamenco Puro in la Vega of Granada

Granada being one of the birthplaces of Flamenco it was about time for us to make a proper recording of this music that is so omnipresent in this area.
And what better way to do it then to record two of the best Flamenco artists of Granada in an idyllic setting.
We chose an old farmhouse that was turned into a bar/restaurant many years ago as a place for the local tobacco farmers to go and have a drink after their day of laboring in the fields. The name of the place is El Charavinillo and it is located in the farmland area just outside of the city of Granada.
The enchantment of the setting with the chimney glowing in the corner gave the perfect space for a night of Flamenco in its purest form, just voice and guitar.
And whom better to rise up to the occasion and offer us a memorable flamenco session than Miguel Ochando and Maria Jose Perez.

Miguel Ochando is one of the most acclaimed guitarist of Granada and has performed alongside most of the Flamenco masters of the time. He has just completed his first solo album with guest artists of the likes of Enrique Morente and his daughter Estrella Morente. You can get it here Miguel Ochando Memoria



Maria Jose Perez, originally from Almeria, is a newcomer to the Flamenco scene in Granada but she has arrived as force to reckon with. Her powerful voice disguises her young age and as experience gets on her side, she will most assuredly be along side the greats of Flamenco putting her stamp on this ancient tradition of song.



Here is the first piece that broke open the ceremony that evening:

Malagueña - Fandango

And here is an amazing Fandango por Solea:

If you enjoyed this please support the artists and get a copy of Miguel's new CD
Miguel Ochando Memoria

There is more where this came from and Wapapura is picking up speed, so stay tuned cause things are just starting to get interesting.....

Flamenco Puro en la Vega de Granada

(Para fotos y para escuchar la musica por favor miren en la parte Inglesa)

Siendo Granada uno de los lugares donde nace el flamenco, ya era hora de que hiciésemos una buena grabación de esta música tan omnipresente en esta región.
Y qué mejor forma de llevar a cabo esta grabación que contar con dos de los mejores artistas flamencos y reunirlos en un lugar idílico.

Escojimos un antiguo cortijo ubicado en los viejas plantaciones de tabaco de la Vega de Granada, donde los recolectores de tabaco acudían a tomar algo tras la jornada laboral. El cortijo fue convertido hace muchos años en bar/restaurante y en una casa de turismo rural. Se llama Cortijo Charavino, si bien todos lo conocen por El Charavinillo.

El encanto del lugar, con la chimenea encendida al fondo y su aire acogedor, ofrecía el ambiente perfecto para una noche de Flamenco en su forma más pura, sencillamente cante y guitarra.Y quién podía ser más adecuado para ofrecernos una inolvidable sesión de Flamenco puro que Miguel Ochando y Mª José Pérez.

Miguel Ochando es una de los guitarristas granadinos más aclamados, de fama nacional e internacional. Miguel ha tocado con muchos de los maestros del Flamenco. Acaba de terminar su primer disco, Memoria, que cuenta con la participación de dos artistas invitados de excepción: enrique Morente y su hija Estrella Morente. Puedes conseguirlo en la siguiente dirección pinchando aqui: Miguel Ochando Memoria

María José Pérez, nacida en Almería, lleva algo menos tiempo en el panorama flamenco granadino, pero ha llegado con mucha fuerza. Su poderosa voz disfraza su corta edad y con la experiencia que va acumulando y el sello personal que ya posee, es seguro que va a convertirse en una de las grandes figuras del cante Flamenco.


Si te ha gustado esta experiencia, apoya a los músicos y consigue una copia del Nuevo CD de Miguel Ochando en: Miguel Ochando Memoria


Aun quedan muchas cosas por venir, el proyecto Wapapura ha empezado a tomar carrerilla, así que sigue conectado porque las cosas se están poniendo interesantes…

Cambridge University Choir at Granada Cathedral

Just three days after our first recording in the Alpujarra Mountains, we had the pleasure of heading back home to Granada and setting up our Solar Powered recording equipment in the Cathedral of Granada to record the Cambridge, UK, University Choir.

The Cathedral of Granada is a very privileged place to have the honor of recording due to its architectural and historical significance, so we are very grateful to the entire choir and its director Julian Revie for inviting us to join them on this special occasion.

The enormous size of this building is reflected in the amazing resonant acoustics that can be heard as the choir performs its repertoire.

This was another event made possible by the work of Cat Jary, the director of the Alexander Music School in Ferreirola. Cat did join them on violoncello along with Cristophe Blezien and Cristina Minguez on violin for a wonderfully presented piece by Haydn that made up part of this evening's concert.

Here are some more pictures and a few pieces of the performance that you can listen to and get a little audio taster of what we were treated to in such an overwhelming space. Sit back, listen and enjoy:
(If you click on a photo when listening to the piece it will cut the audio by opening another window with the picture)

Ave Maria -- Franz Biebl

Locus Iste -- A. Bruckner

Kyrie from Missa Brevis Sancta Joannis de Deo -- F. J. Haydn

Once the website is running this entire performance will be available as a download.
Downloads to all recordings will be available for donations that will go to further Wapapura recordings and the environmental projects that are associated to Wapapura Sound Projects.

Here is Jorge and Rafa from the Wapapura Team enjoying a very special moment that happened to also be Jorge's birthday:

And here is Rafa mesmerized by the sound:

Thank you All and keep tuned to see where we end up next.....

Coro de Cambridge en Catedral de Granada

Solo tres días después de nuestra primera grabación en la Alpujarra, tuvimos el placer de volver a Granada y montar todo el equipo de grabación por energía solar en la Catedral de Granada. Fuimos allí para grabar al Coro de la Universidad de Cambridge, Reino Unido.

La Catedral de Granada es un lugar privilegiado para grabar, no sólo por su gran importancia histórica sino también por su espectacular arquitectura. Estamos muy agradecidos por el honor de haber sido invitados por todo el coro y en especial por su director Julian Revie.

La grandiosidad de este edificio queda reflejada en la espectacular acústica que tuvimos cuando el coro presentó su concierto. Este tipo de resonancia solo es posible en espacios de tal magnitud. Grabar un coro de 30 personas aquí fue todo un placer.

Este evento también fue posible gracias al trabajo de Cat Jary, la directora de la Escuela de Música Alexander en Ferreirola. Cat también toco su violoncelo junto con Christophe Blezien y Cristina Minguez al violín, en lo que fue una espléndida ejecución de una pieza de Haydn que formó parte del concierto de la noche.

Para escuchar partes del concierto que nos brindaron en tan magnifico espacio, dirigíos a la parte de inglés y buscad los reproductores que hay allí. (Recordad que si tenéis la música puesta y pincháis en una foto, la música se cortará y se abrirá una ventana nueva para ver la foto).

El resto del concierto estará disponible como una descarga cuando ya esté funcionando la página Web. El dinero de las descargas se destinará a futuros proyectos de Wapapura y a proyectos medioambientales de organizaciones con las que estemos afiliados.

Gracias a todos y seguid en sintonía para ver hacia dónde nos dirigimos en la próxima...

Magical Night at the Mora Luna

Life tends to keep us on our toes by making sure that powerful moments happen when we least expect them.

This is some music from the concert that took place the night after the inaugural recording. It was not a solar powered recording, actually the quality of the recording is not very good because it was done on my hand held recorder. But it is an archive of a very special night.

A night that shows you the magic that can happen when you take three musicians from totally different backgrounds, put them in a house in the middle of the mountains for a few days and have them play in a pizza bar after Spain beats Italy in penalty kicks to win the European Cup Semi-Finals.

Beautiful improvised perfection. Enjoy...

Darth goes over the Rainbow

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Some day I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemondrops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?
Some day I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemondrops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can't I?

Inaugural Recording on the 2008 Summer Solstice!

Well, it looks like we finally made it. It was a long journey, but finally we found ourselves back in the mountains, with all the equipment ready to make our first "official" recording. And it just so happened to be the 2008 Summer Solstice. Not a bad day to inaugurate a Solar Powered Music Recording Project.

The concert recording took place at a wonderful space in the garden area of the Restaurant La Alcachofa in Pitres. Overlooking the mountain expanse of the Alpujarras, we had the privilege due to some very special circumstances, of recording two amazing musicians, Rob Mazurek from Chicago and Guilherme Granado from Sao Paolo, Brazil.

They are the two components of the Sao Paolo Undergound quartet that actually made it through Spanish Immigration. Due to some absurd border conflicts between Spain and Brazil at the moment, two of the musicians of this project were not allowed into Spain. This left Rob and Guilherme in the difficult situation of having to face doing their Spanish tour as a duo instead of as a quartet.
But as the tour progressed they demonstrated their ability as musicians to take an unfortunate situation and create a new project that evolved and adapted to each new space they played in. Instead of being what one would usually call concerts, they were more like intimate conversations between two very interesting people using all the instruments that had crossed the oceans with them.

Now, what did cross the ocean with them was a good deal of electronic equipment that tested us and our solar powered sound system to its peak. This was coupled with the fact that we had to borrow equipment from may different sources to make this concert work. It all caused a good deal of stress in trying to make it all sound correct and in the end it taught us the lesson that we still have a long way to travel and a good deal to learn in order to make solar powered recordings in remote locations.

Nonetheless, it all worked out because Rob and Guilherme did their thing and played beautiful music that was all powered by the Sun on its longest dance of the year.


Listen for yourselves and let us know what you think:

Three Fountain grooves

Caminos con Buarque

Yellow Hat Rocker

I wish to thank the entire Wapapura team for pulling through (Ivan, Jorge, Maia and Sole) plus Ziggy, Misha and Richard for their equipment; Javi and Hersh of La Alcachofa for offering their space; to Mike Orlove for putting me in contact with Rob in the first place, and of course, to the omnipresent Cat Jary for making all of this possible.

And a huge thanks to Rob and Guilherme for one amazing and BEAUTIFUL tour of Iberia Magica!!!


For more on either of the musicians please check out:
http://www.myspace.com/flubio
http://www.robmazurek.com

Here is the Wapapura Team doing our thing under the hot sun:

Onwards we go....................