When we feel that what we do does not fulfill us, there are those who take refuge and those who jump. The former bet on stability, as is normal, and the latter on what can exist after going through a labyrinth of risks. A year ago, Ibizan Lara Magrinyà and Catalan Anna Sala left their jobs as teachers in a music school to create Arannaa musical duo that combines innovation and tradition. After the publication of The salamandertheir first album inspired by the literary world of the famous Catalan writer Mercè Rodoreda, won the XVII Miquel Martí i Pol Prize.
Once overcoming the fragility of the beginning of his career, this musical project accompanied by keyboards, voices and synthesizers begins to glimpse its own path, adapted to its own needs. In recent days they were in Formentera to start working on their next album, which will be linked to I can’t repeata traditional song from the islands of Ibiza and Formentera. Lara Magrinyà, main voice of the duo, explains that they need to “create a climate” to “start writing something new”. We talk to him.
So, are they planning something new?
Yes yes. The work is continuing and we are already planning the next one. But hey, so as not to have holes which are not very practical. We work with a label called Atzavarawhich comes from a guy who just opened it very recently and who is a friend of ours. We are all a little involved in team building, having a network of people who support you is key to being able to grow in music.
How this happens Aranna And what was his beginnings like?
We both studied classical music at the Superior School of Music of Catalonia (ESMUC), we studied classical piano performance. Once this academic phase is over, like many people, we decide to devote ourselves to teaching, because it is almost the only outcome that corresponds more or less to the stability that we seek at the time of emancipation. But that didn’t fill us up enough.
There was something a little retarded about that part of being able to continue to chart your own artistic path, wasn’t there? So, I really wanted to sing because it’s something that I’ve always loved and which comes naturally to me. It’s also a very, very way of doing things, contrary to what our training asked us, which was to seek perfection. In the end, a little doubtful, we said to ourselves: “What if we tried to make songs, me singing, you accompany me, and we’ll see?” So we start there.
We therefore decided to put to music some unpublished texts by the writer Toni Sala that he himself gave us. We made three short songs which were very popular and, little by little, we entered a sort of literary circuit, because when he gave presentations of the book, sometimes they invited us to sing. Then we considered making a slightly broader repertoire and finally we thought about creating an album with our own songs.
And how was the process from the moment of giving voice to literary texts to the transition to your own voice?
As we come from this literary side, we decided to continue this tradition of taking a Catalan-speaking author and putting him to music. But at some point we remembered the stories of Mercè Rodoreda, which we loved because they were very powerful. The only problem was that it wasn’t poetry, so making it into a song was complicated. We found this a very interesting challenge.
At the same time, we were lucky enough to receive a grant in La Marfà, of Girona, an entity that promotes the cultural fabric of young emerging artists. They provided us with assistance in 2023, which consisted of financial assistance for the project we had presented and, in addition, a year of support and advice. This was a big step forward because it was the first time an institution had looked at our work and decided it was worth their time. It was a turning point.
So, as we couldn’t make a living from it, we left the rest of our work to concentrate our energies on this project and went to our parents’ house so as not to have to pay rent and to be able to do it more peacefully. It was last year. Thanks to this grant, we were able to record the album which was released in April and which began to make us known to the public.
As we come from this literary side, we decided to continue this tradition of taking a Catalan-speaking author and putting him to music. But at some point we remembered the stories of Mercè Rodoreda, which we loved because they were very powerful. The only problem was that it wasn’t poetry, so making it into a song was complicated. We found it to be a very interesting challenge.
Being young and having a stable first job seems very risky these days.
This is an ongoing risk because you have to continually learn and make blind decisions. Normally, when you have a job that already exists, that is already prepared, with a position to fill, a few hours and a salary, everything is very clear. But in this case, it’s absolutely blind. You have to take the risk that it goes well or badly.
Devoting yourself to music means constantly jumping into the void. It’s risky, but that’s also the beautiful thing, I guess. I He directed numerous choirs and also gave piano and music lessons. And at the beginning I also had this fear of letting go of something stable in principle. I thought about reducing the class hours but it’s not possible, you have to devote yourself entirely to it.
Once this stage is completed, the Miquel Martí i Pol Prize arrives. How did you receive it?
It was a surprise. We applied and, as a result, we received the information that we had been selected among the first 25 proposals of the year and that seemed very strong to us. But then there was another screening, where there were 5 finalists, and there we were. What’s going on?, we asked ourselves. We were thinking of staying there. But Lluís Llach called us on a Saturday to tell us no, that they had decided to give us first prize. We didn’t believe it. It is very important to note that from the outside someone gives meaning to what we do. Because the meaning of your work is invented by you. In the end, we make songs that no one asked us to do and it’s very nice when someone recognizes it.
The song that gives the title to her album is about a witch who takes on the connotation of a rebellious and fighting woman. Is there a feminist motivation behind this impulse?
There is a feminist connection and something that we had very closely. Anna lives in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, her family is from there and Mercè Rodoreda died in the neighboring town. So there was also that closeness of saying “oh man, there are still people who remember her walking around there.” That, in a way, gave us this point of proximity to this material, it motivated us, even though the fact is that we are two women working on this. We do not seek to draw attention to this specific parameter, although it is obviously a topical issue because it always seems that we have to struggle to make visible certain normalities which, due to having a kind or another, are what they are.
On the other hand, I wanted to ask you about the current boom in Catalan music made by young women. I am referring to Júlia Colom, Marala, Maria Hein, Maria Jaume and Mushkka. Are we taking this phenomenon into account from the inside?
Yeah, the thing is, I don’t know if that would include us there, because I think with that first album, I don’t know if it was just for that audience, but yeah, I think it is something that happens. The style of all the singers of this trend and their age, because they are younger, are different.
Until recently we did not see a Catalan trap, I think there is a moment where we are finally working on the issue of the Catalan language and also giving space for its visibility. But, as I told you, it is still something that arises as an indirect consequence of everyone’s work.
Yes, because your music is also characterized by playing with tradition, but it is also very, very innovative, even if it is perhaps not intentional.
Of course, because it is a very present language today. The working material of many artists, this language, is perhaps more electronic music. It’s true that we come from the classical world, but our music is not classical music. What we are doing now is giving the project what it needs to shine more. We were very clear that we didn’t want to stay in this plan of singing accompanied by piano and that’s it. This is why we went, for example, to look for the work of other artists, like our producer Emili Bosch.
We didn’t want to create a forced electronic sound. We always try to give a lot of space to our vision, trying not to fall into the temptation of canons, because you can immediately compose a song in five minutes and make it work. What attracts us is looking for a very detailed or valuable composition of what you have in front of you.
