After 2 years of forced absence, the Lanzarote Visual Music Festival returns, which will celebrate its 17th edition from October 11 to 22. Eleven days of concerts by avant-garde musicians in spectacular natural spaces and unique enclaves on the island of volcanoes.
Created and organized by the Cabildo de Lanzarote in 1989, at the proposal of the artist Ildefonso Aguilar, the Lanzarote Visual Music Festival is "a reference meeting for contemporary music and other avant-garde artistic expressions, in complete harmony with the natural spaces of the island, such as the auditoriums of Jameos del Agua, the Cueva de los Verdes, the Convento de Santo Domingo and the El Almacén Cultural Center".
For the Minister of Culture, Alberto Aguiar, this Festival is "a great opportunity to highlight Lanzarote's landscape heritage and its multiple possibilities for the development of unique cultural activities." "This is one of the longest-running music festivals on the Canary Islands and one of the first Contemporary Music Festivals created in the world, which is a great attraction for those who enjoy and like avant-garde music," he explains.
In this context, the artistic director and founder of the Festival, Ildefonso Aguilar, assures that the Festival is "a unique alternative offer, which contributes to enriching the cultural program of the island and the Canary Islands." "After the long break that the pandemic has meant, starting its implementation again is taking a lot of work. To implement an event of these characteristics and be able to consolidate it and make it visible among the population, it is necessary for several editions to pass," he points out.
Among the huge list of artists who have passed through the Visual Music Festival, contemporary musicians such as Michael Brook, Anja Lechner, Johann Johansson or Brian Eno stand out, who stated that Lanzarote "stimulates artistic behavior and a physical approach to pure creation."
Programming
This year's concert program kicks off next Tuesday, October 11 at the CIC El Almacén with local artist Iván Vilella, a multidisciplinary artist who will present his project "Ucronías", expressly created for the Festival. In addition to Vilella, that same day we can enjoy the proposal of Nico Hernández & Simone Marin who will stage their video and laser mapping project, synchronized with the sound.
On Thursday the 13th, at 8:00 p.m., O-Janà + Michele Rabbia will perform in the Auditorium of the Jameos del Agua, a project that brings together the singer Ludovica Manzo and the musician/electronic pianist Alessandra Bossa, with the percussionist Michele Rabbia. The combination of these artists, each loaded with spontaneity, curiosity and audacity, is exciting and the result is a music that travels from electronics to composition and free improvisation.
The Convento de Santo Domingo will be, on Saturday, October 15 at 8:00 p.m., the stage for the performance of the We Are (T)here project, a research work on the voice from a choreographic perspective created by Aurora Bauzà and Pere Jou, in which the voice and body of the four performers generate acoustic compositions and sound experiments that enable the discovery of space through voice and movement.
The second week of the festival begins with "Electric Amazigh", a project by Javier Infante & North Sea String Quartet, which will take place on Thursday, October 20 at 8:00 p.m. at the Jameos del Agua. "Electric Amazigh" is the new work of the Dutch jazz string quartet North Sea String Quartet and the Canarian guitarist-composer Javier Infante. A vibrant collaboration in which acoustic and electric sounds converge in a timeless look towards the traces of the aboriginal past of the Canary archipelago that continue to resonate in the present.
The last day of the Festival, on Saturday, October 22, the Norwegian Eivind Aarset will perform at the Jameos del Agua Auditorium, a guitarist with an enviable personality and a unique musical vision that can range from absolute intimacy to the most searing intensity. For this occasion he is accompanied by Audun Erlien on bass, and by Erland Dahlen and Wetle Holte on drums, percussion and electronics.
As is customary in this Festival, and which has become its hallmark, the design of lights and visual effects of almost all the concerts will be carried out by the Festival's own director, Ildefonso Aguilar.
The offer of the 17th edition of the FMVL is completed with the screening of two documentaries about contemporary musicians Max Richter and Ennio Morricone, which will take place at the CIC El Almacén on October 12 and 19, respectively.
Tickets to attend the concerts and screenings can be purchased, from August 16, through the website www.festivaldemusicavisualdelanzarote.com.
