BIO
Andrés Coll, born 2000 in Ibiza, is a multifaceted vibraphonist who amalgamates sharp and broad musical sense, virtuoso playing skills and stoic commitment to art. From his childhood on a loyal member of a local folklore group, he became conscious of the deep and broad origins of his native music. Coll discreetly matured to an investigative player and composer dedicated to the cross-sum of primigenius music, folklore, Bach, Bartók, contemporary music, modern jazz and free improvisation. His open mind, sense of quality and no fuss attitude make him a frequent and most welcome partner of the established, yet often disclosed musical elite of like minded top artists worldwide.
NEW VIDEOCLIP
New videoclip from the last concert of the Andrés Coll Odyssey at Enter Enea Festival in 2023!
Andrés Coll brought with him from Ibiza sunny summer weather for the whole festival. [...] he captivated not only his bandmates but also the audience. [...] Andrés has a great party, jumps and is very likable. Definitely the most enjoyable concert of the whole festival!
-Michal Kratochvíl at JazzPort.cz
ODYSSEY
Embark on an inspiring musical journey through freedom, world culture, and avant-garde jazz with the Andrés Coll Odyssey. This four-member band brings together the diverse cultures of Ibiza, Eastern Europe, and North Africa in a modern and inspiring approach that moves listeners with the native grooves of these exotic lands.
Their music hits home deeply, as they showcase the music they grew up with: Gnawa from North Africa, Folklore from Ibiza Island, and Eastern European folk music. All emanating from the same root, with intertwined grooves and sharing the same uplifting vibration of primal music.
Not only do they bring cultures back together, but they are also fierce advocates of freedom, playing and expressing themselves into musical ecstasy through intuitive improvisation, while still maintaining the most fundamental groove that moves listeners into a state of liberation and internal unity.
Majid Bekkas, the group's guembri player and singer, is the most dazzling exponent of modern Gnawa music. He carries out a very extensive musical research of his native land, incorporating instruments other than the guembri such as the oud, the kalimba, the voice, the guitar, the ngoni,... to all kinds of modern music, being recognised as the only guembri player who has been able to leave tradition and open up to any musical genre. He has played and organised major festivals such as the Gnawa and World Music Festival in Essaouira and the Jazz Au Chellah in Rabat.
Mateusz Smoczynski has been an experienced violinist in folk ensembles since his childhood. Through his profound knowledge of folklore, he has developed an authentic and original sound, which he has brought to the fore at major international jazz festivals and as a soloist in the most important orchestras in Europe.
He is considered the greatest exponent of modern violin playing, incorporating new sounds such as the baritone violin, effect pedals, samplers,... and a wide variety of uncommon violin techniques, which enhance the possibilities of the instrument to unheard of levels. He has been for years a member of the famous Turtle Island String Quartet, and founded his own quartet, the Atom String Quartet. He has also composed, premiered and performed as soloist his violin concerto ''Adam's Apple'' with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Ramón López, drummer and percussionist, and experienced ambassador of infectious Spanish joy on the world jazz scene, is a musician of unique international renown. His ability to adapt his music has led to numerous projects of different kinds and with a wide range of sounds, be it North African, Ibizan or Indian folk music, or avant-garde recordings with door sounds in the world's leading contemporary music labels.
FOLKLORE
The further civilisation distances man from nature, the greater his longing for authenticity. Whenever in history the desire for profit and ulterior motives took up too much space, when the distance between the people and the privileged became unbearable, the call for a more authentic, down-to-earth way of life turned loud. But it was not until the advent of the steam engine that the term folklore came into being, differentiating the collective-essential lifestyles of traditional peoples, which were already dying out in Europe, from modern individual-hedonistic industrial society. Its current fourth phase, that of digital simulation, boosts the humans’ delusion, our pathogenic confusion of truth and fabrication to an unforeseen critical point of crises, and grants the current strong interest in folklore with a new, healing mission.
The healing effect of folk music against human delusion is multiple and direct. The confusion of truth and fake is in technical terms self betrayal, which logically leads to a subsequent loss of meaning. Earthbound societies derive their world view from an immediate bond with soil, water, weather and fire, their wisdom from the rules of nature and their customs from many generations of experience of just social management and integration of human needs with the given natural conditions. Those needs and conditions are certainly local and specific, yet they all condense into a universal code of ethics, of tolerance in diversity, of equality in uniqueness. Folklore concerts and festivals, by no surprise, tend to be very cheerful and very unifying events.
Thus folklore speaks to the whole of the human being: Its natural rhythms invigorate the body, its organic harmonies empower the state of mind, its honest melodies let the soul speak out and its deep poetry awakens the spirit. Its bold, heroic attitude eradicates doubts. Authenticity is an instant antidote to self-betrayal. In folklore, even the most simple merry sing-along tunes require an astute, a courageous and decided musician. It inspires a heroic attitude.
VANGUARDISM
Not only humans, but also animals like birds and whales display an anarchic, modernist element against conventions, when they modify the lines of their song. At the same time they conserve a strict tradition, by keeping their call recognizably their own and authentic, a nightingale will not sound like a chicken and vice versa.
The human's relation with his authenticity seems more complex, as he easily confuses it with the illusory subject of his projections, the ego, vitally needy for attention and reward and compelled to create artificial conventions to attain them, which suppress authenticity and create suffering.
Whenever the human's artificial conventions have created enough injustice, new sounds emerge. The link between social uprisings and musical innovation is historic and many established musical styles once emerged as music of rebellion, be it Hip Hop, Reggae, Jazz, Rock and even the Viennese Waltz or the Tarantella.
With the beginning of the twentieth century, the fakeness of Victorian morals and the uniformity of industrial consumerism led to the rediscovery of the authenticity of traditional folklore and united it with the modern quest for free expression.
MEDIA
AUDIO
Album Natural Research
Andrés Coll & Joachim Kühn
VIDEO
ARTICLES
Andrés Coll Odyssey at Enter Enea Festival 04/06/2023
Review by Czech Jazz magazine JAZZ PORT
''Andrés Coll brought sunny summer weather with him from Ibiza for the entire duration of the festival. [...] With his sincere enthusiasm and boundless energy, he captivated not only his teammates, but also the audience, and the enthusiastic reception of his first concert abroad was guaranteed. [...] Andrés steams, jumps and is extremely likable while playing. Definitely the sweetest concert of the entire festival!