Catalan singer-songwriter Ferran Orriols releases his latest album `Darrere els horts` (Behind the Orchards) this month, a deeply personal yet expansive record. It was recorded in a repurposed chicken farm in La Torre d’Oristà, the small village near Barcelona where Orriols was born. The release weaves together Indie-Folk, Balkan and Arabic influences, traditional Catalan habaneras, bossa nova, and folk-rooted traditional music, creating a sound that is both rooted and unplaceable, a modern take on folk storytelling that is both intimate and adventurous. This project has brought together an array of artists including renowned Catalan musicians alongside Steve Jones, of the iconic 70s British folk-rock band Heron.
We are introduced to the album with the forty second `Cançons` which appears to translate to `songs` and is a briefly sung oration whose lyrics translate to “I don’t demand anything from songs and they don’t demand me anything either.” The sound of water running permeates the gentle `Fer L’amor` (Make Love) a folk tinged number with acoustic guitar that honours the joys of a loving sexual relationship in a small indistinct town.
`Mustang` has a bass depth and banjo tinges and seems to be about being a renegade or outsider. Ferran`s voice has a sense of unease and we have some female “ahhh ahhh” harmonies as shared in Spaghetti Western movie soundtracks. We return to a stripped back texture with picked guitar and vocals on `Les Dents` (Teeth) a captivating listen where you can hear motorcycles and a cock crowing in the background. It may be about learning from lived experiences.
`Hermoses` is a quite philosophical musing that has a drum machine beat and acoustic guitar and tells of life lived in a small village and how wealth is not what you have but comes from within oneself. We enjoy some percussive tones, dreamy guitar chords and more robust brass like tones as the number evolves. Some of us have a place or song where we go to in times of stress in our lives and `Les Presses`(haste)` touches on this. A number that encourages us to maybe take a step back and appreciate life. It`s a tender rhythmic composition that has a skewed guitar segment mid tune.
`Consevadors`(Conservative)` is a brief philosophic meditation whose message is that “The most conservative are those who act as progressive and they don’t know that they are not.” Perot is a character from Don Quixote and `Perot i jo a la intempèrie` (Perot and me in the open air) is a contemplation as to whether a friendship would be viable, which seems not.
`La Morronga` is a traditional light-hearted duet while `Gràcies a tu` (Thanks to you) is a song in praise and appreciation of that certain someone in your life.
`El Grinch`(The Grinch) lives up to their mean spirit ness with one line “It’s Sunday and I don’t like football.” While `Artistes` (Artists) is a rousing ditty in praise and condemnation of performers. `Estima`(Love) is a gentle strummed submission that reflects on accepting love for good or bad and regardless as to how if feels. The title of `Benparit` roughly translates to well born, in a way that someone is an amazing, good person. A song again in praise of somebody close, a lover possibly. Firewood can be heard burning as this acoustic rendition is shared.
`Tom DeLonge` is a celebration of Thomas Matthew DeLonge, the American musician best known as the co-founder, co-lead vocalist, and guitarist of the rock band Blink-182, a rhythmic fan boy outing. The piano led `Andana 9 i ¾` (Platform 9 ¾) is a little surreal. `La marmota`(The Marmot) is fairly nursery rhymish and a rumination on this squirrel like rodent. We enjoy another animal themed number with `La granota (The Frog)` which has a frog challenging a grasshopper to a jumping competition. This piano led offering sounds fairly distanced.
`No t’estimaré sempre igual` (I won`t always love you the same) is a compassionate deliberation on how love changes as we grow and age together. The warm `Ai, setembre!` (Oh, September) has the sound of twittering birds and a church bell ringing in the background of this reverential ode to the month that marks the beginning of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and spring in the Southern Hemisphere, representing the transition from summer to a new season.
`Càmping` (Camping) excels the joys of times spent lodging in a polyester or nylon based encampment but `Lluçanès` is about an acquaintance who should be left alone. `Roses grogues` (Yellow Roses) is a cover of a song composed by the 1970s English folk-rock band Heron with the piano played by original member Steve Jones. It`s a pretty faithful rendition. A Yellow Rose symbolises friendship, joy, and happiness which does seem to fill this number. The final offering is the upbeat `Darrere els horts` (Behind The Gardens) which seems to be a slant on the proverb “the grass is always greener on the other side” a bossa nova tinged piece with all and sundry joining in.
`Darrere els horts` (Behind the Orchards) is a wonderfully at times exposed and unprocessed listen, honest, passionate and powerful and for me brought to mind Michelle Shocked`s `The Texas Campfire Tapes` from nearly forty years ago, an album recorded on a Sony Walkman during an impromptu set performed around a campfire at the The Kerrville Folk Festival. Whether an album is recorded in a big studio or indeed a repurposed chicken farm, it’s the quality of the music that`s foremost and most important.
I really enjoyed the simplicity and sincerity of this release and despite not understanding what was sung, a translation of each number helped.
Give Ferran Orriols and `Darrere els horts` a listen and i`m sure you`ll be as blown away as I was.
Rating 9/10
