The composer and singer Sheila Blanco and the guitarist Julián Olivares published this Sunday the songs ‘Granada (entre el Darro y el Genil)’ and ’18 de agosto’, two original songs that commemorate the poet Federico García Lorca on the 88th anniversary of his murder.
“We will publish our first two original songs dedicated to the ‘poet from Granada’. One is called ‘Granada (Entre el Darro y el Genil)’ and it is a song that talks about the city and about Lorca (…) And the other is ’18 de agosto’, which we like to say is a raw and beautiful work at the same time, like life itself. It deals with Lorca’s last hours, the disappearance and the murder,” Blanco explained in an interview with Europa Press.
Both songs will be available to listen to starting this Sunday on all audio platforms and on YouTube, accompanied by their respective music videos recorded in Granada.
Performed as a guitar and vocal duo, the two songs are part of the ‘Memoria’ project, a musical space to recover and create songs linked to our “emotional memory” and within which songs by authors such as Joaquín Sabina, Joan Manuel Serrat, María Dolores Pradera or Édith Piaf are already part of it.
“As they are such good songs, even if you play them so bare, with a guitar and a voice, they don’t need anything else. That’s how they come across so well and have the power of simplicity,” said Blanco.
‘Memoria’ was born just over a year ago as a result of a podcast about Clara Campoamor, when Olivares and Blanco were asked to perform ‘Anda Jaleo’, a popular song arranged by Federico García Lorca.
“It was such a beautiful experience that we decided to create this musical space that we named ‘Memory’ and whose premise is to recover, for pure pleasure, songs entangled in our emotional memory, learned from our parents, grandparents, from our own experiences,” Blanco says on his social networks.
HEADS AND TAILS OF LORCA’S LIFE
‘Granada (Between the Darro and the Genil)’, a song inspired by a trip Blanco made some years ago to the Andalusian city — following the Granada roadmap by Hispanist Ian Gibson –, tells the pleasant side of Lorca’s life and land through verses such as: “And in his room he awaits me / That desk, that bed / And that poster, a vivid dream / His years at La Barraca / Federico comes to me / Granada is breathed in you / Federico, you are here / Granada always looks at you.”
In contrast, ‘August 18’ records what happened on that same day in 1936: “Spain and the entire Earth / mourn our Lorca / Damn all wars / And those who provoke them.”
The cover art for the two songs was designed by Galician designer Vanesa Álvarez, who captured the essence of each song thanks to “a symbiosis between art and music,” according to Blanco.
“We suggested that we do the same illustration of Lorca on both covers, but that one would be the negative of the other, because it is true that ‘Granada’ is a subject… not happier, but it is like a brighter side and that ’18 de agosto’ is a more gloomy subject.”
The illustrations contain Lorca’s own handwriting and the poet’s own illustration. The typical Andalusian green polka dots and the outline of the city’s monuments in ‘Granada’ contrast with the negative illustration of the poet in ’18 de agosto’, with red flashes that simulate bullets and red furrows that symbolize blood. “What we love about Vanesa Álvarez is that everything she decides makes sense and is related to the song,” Blanco added.