Caja de Música...¡Primer Disco de Caranzalem!

CAJA DE MÚSICA, much more than a CD

Caja de Música (Music Box) is our first album

On the one hand, we wanted to express our time working together as a group and the music we play: songs from all around the world that allow us to imagine a thousand trips, from an Argentinian tango to an Eastern European piece, as well as music from from Peru, Finland, Cuba…

In order to reach that goal we recorded during Summer 2016 in Ponteareas, Galicia, with the producer and sound technician Rubén Díez and with the percussionist Antonio Montiel. Musicians like John Conde and Jaime Serradilla also took part, as well as Fernando Massia as production assistant and presenter of our promotional video.

On the other hand, we want this album to be something special, a complete artwork which tells a story:

A music box. On a shop desk. A shop that is hidden on a street corner; the street is in a city lost in some part of the world. Those who cross the door are looking for something: a gadget, a wish, a flavour, a memory, a hope; something they forgot some time ago, something they longed for, something they fear, something they were waiting for. On the old desk, between some lost objects, between scents and pastel colours, the carved wood resists the passing of time. Two puppets look at the horizon over blue velvet: one holds a bow and a viol between her legs, the other holds a recorder between her lips.

Pilar, who is also a plastic artist, is responsible for the illustration and design and Clara Astarloa, a writer and a good friend, has written some texts and poems for the accompanying booklet.

Our Music Box is waiting for you. You can enjoy the sounds and surprises it holds inside.

We started this ambitious project nearly two years ago. We were really excited about expressing our ideas and our way of playing music in it and we wanted to share that with you all.

Music moves us; it is a butterfly in our stomachs which has been with us since we were children. We love letting it fly whenever we can and this album represents one of these moments.

We have spent a lot of effort and dedication to get there. And we have also forked some money out. We hope you can help us to defray these costs with your donations.

In return, we have prepared some rewards that we hope you will like. Everything from the CD to a private concert!

We encourage you to become travellers and to share this adventure with us. You decide the kind and the duration of your journey ;)

We would be really happy to count on your support!

We will use the money for:

• Defraying the cost of the CD recording, editing and mastering and for the remuneration of the artists who have collaborated.
• Making 1000 copies of the CD (we want to share it with as many people as possible!)
• Covering the cost and delivery of the rewards, the percentage for the platform and bank commissions.

A whole life focused on music

As we have already told you, we love music! We love playing music, singing and travelling. And we love sharing all that with you!

Pilar Almalé

I am creative and lively. I studied Fine Arts and, even though I am focused on music, I love taking my paint brushes out of the drawer and expressing myself through colours. Painting, writing, designing… Some people say I am an artist, I say at least I try.

When I was a child I wanted to be a lot of things and, curiously enough, I never said I wanted to be a musician. But music has been always with me, day by day, year by year: so many hours of conservatory, of listening, singing, practicing…

I started studying music when I was seven years old in Zaragoza. Thanks to living a few gorgeous years in Seville where I finished my Professional viol degree as well as my Fine Arts degree. Then, music took me to Vigo and I remain here.

Now I am studying an Advanced Viol Degree with the great teacher Sara Ruiz. But I would also like to name other important teachers for me: Leonardo Luckert (Sevilla) and Fernando Marín (Zaragoza). And I took some masterclasses from José Vázquez, Fahmi Alqhai and Rami Alqhai.

I travelled all around the world: France, Italy, Germany, England, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, Peru… I was given some grants for participating in social integration projects in India and Bolivia, where I gave some concerts too.

It has been a pleasure to have been able to play with some greats like Jordi Savall, Andrew Lawrence King, Arianna Savall, Dulce Pontes or the international bag-piper Carlos Núñez several times.

What is my link to this project? I think I am an outgoing, lively and restless person… maybe too much! Elena helps me and teaches me how to be patient and how to focus. She also teaches me a lot about early music and she always gives me good advice when I feel overcome by the demands of the Advanced Conservatory. Our friendship has been always special and strong. We met each other in India. It was difficult because we spent a month living with a person we didn’t know at all, sharing a room with cockroaches, lizards and a cat that we found and couldn’t chase out because it was so adorable… In India it is really easy to catch an illness every week and we lived through that together too! Our relationship and our project are strong, intense and tough!

Elena Escartín

Music has always been present on my life. Since I was a child, my father played with me by ringing one of the hundred bells he had collected so that I could guess which one was ringing. He sang songs to me and he took me with him to the choir rehearsals he conducted.

When I was seven I started my musical studies. The training wasn’t always easy, but it opened many wonderful doors for me like taking part in the Ruta Quetzal in 2005 thanks to a musical composition I created. I was in Peru with this cultural trip. There I met people from all around the world and, above all, I matured a lot.

Since then I had an itch for going across the world and have had an interest in realities different from mine: Canada, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Italy, Morocco, India… These are some places where I have been.

I finished my degree and I completed a Master’s degree in Education. Nevertheless, my enterprising spirit led me to give up teaching and preferring to manage projects where I could bring music and its benefits to other people. Furthermore I have other groups such as Vox Tremula or Aquitania.

What is my link to this project? I think I am a shy person and music helps me to express myself. I feel great when I dare to share what I have inside with other people. In some way, meeting Pilar, our friendship and Caranzalem have been a present for me. We are really different but complementary at the same time. I love when she passes her vitality and self-confidence on to me, or her passion for art. Who would have ever said that I was going to end up singing on stage?