1971

After exploring rock's margins with bands such as Manta Ray or Viva Las Vegas, guitarist and composer Josele García turns his music towards a classic pop aesthetic on Elle Belga, a new project shared with Fany Álvarez (vocals, keyboards), stretching time and genre boundaries, with vocal melodies as each song's main focus and a taste for tradition and chanson. Whatever we turn out with, we must be able to whistle it. On his own words, Josele García describes how he and his girlfriend Fany Álvarez faced the making of 1971, their debut album as Elle Belga. Josele used to be a part of Manta Ray and Viva las Vegas, both celebrated acts from the Spanish experimental rock scene, but lately he has discovered the importance of human voice as an element of expression. He began preparing brief outlines of chants based on traditional Spanish lullabies and then covering those sketches with a lush instrumentation that included guitar and piano as guidelines, occasional brass arrangements and sampled rhythm parts used as a very own replica of the drum production that was featured on records released more than thirty years ago. An imaginative take on pop that helps rediscovering the vibe of European all time classics (think of Paco Ibáñez, Dominique a or Scott Walker) and still innovate within sound textures, ambience and tunes, filling each musical meter with a surprise, turn after turn, verse after verse, track after track.

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