Like a diptych, a B-side extracted from the silence that accompanies the words of our lives and that is capable of amassing stories and songs, or that mixture of both things that Els Amics de les Arts usually work with. This is how Les paraules que triem no dir (Pistatxo Records) is proposed, the seventh album by the trio of Catalan musicians that provides the counterpoint to Allà on volia, published in March 2023. Two albums that are two sides of the same story built from his life experience, memory of quarantine, fatherhood, loves and breakups that accentuate his memory.
If last year they reflected on the vital moment in which Dani, Joan Enric and Ferran found themselves, now they complete the journey with seven songs about those things that remain silent, “what we do not do or say, what we do not communicate to family and friends. In these lyrics you always find the absence of communication,” says Joan Enric Barceló of an album that travels from funky electronica to melancholic pop, passing through a surprising bachata to conclude with Un gran cometa quasi acoustic that features the collaboration of the Bruckman choir for close this sheet of musical stories full of melodies and inflections, against the algorithm.
The essence of Els Amics resonates from the song that gives its name to the album and opens it, a story of a love relationship in four acts narrated from silences that arise in the most significant moments: the meeting, the family, infidelity and the children who They don’t understand why the mother doesn’t live with them. The same thing happens in Sort que souhere, where friends fill the atmosphere without the need for words, or Aquests dinars, present memory of loved ones whose presence materializes in family gatherings, where affection makes the Ouija board or witchcraft unnecessary. the style. “If Allà on volia is a reflection on the most extroverted moments, Les paraules que triem no dir is a discourse inward although the rhythms are sometimes not.”
“The act of silence is very powerful because it often implies being silent, but what you keep quiet stays inside,” Joan Enric reflects on the common thread of the album, present in both the music and the lyrics, “reflections on things that remain with you.” inside, what you haven’t said, where you look at yourself”, songs that were born at the same time as those from Allà on volia but preferred to reserve. “At that time we asked ourselves what sense it makes today to publish an album with 15 songs, when people usually listen to only two or three.” The solution was to group them into two volumes, two different stories that dialogue with each other, sometimes directly, like the neighborhood superheroes of Els desperfectes and the partygoers of La nit sembla que serà nostra.
Paternity and divorces are very present in the album’s themes, ideas that the trio has taken from their surroundings and that they have not hesitated to animate with electronic melodies such as the one that accompanies Tothom es separa, where the freshness of the bachatero rhythm sets the tone. counterpoint to the separation of a couple. “The concept of a couple is changing,” explains Ferran Piqué, son of divorcees like Joan Enric Barceló. “Then we were the exception but now it has become natural, marriage is more liquid than before.” This is how they capture the scene of a couple trying to sweeten the sadness of a separation for their children with the promise of two houses, a double number of gifts. “We asked ourselves how we could make the message sound more ironic, with more edge, and we thought of a casual rhythm that makes you dance with something that is ultimately a drama.”
The production of the duo Manu Guix-Roger Rodés on the one hand, and Tony Doogan on the other, has resulted in multiple sonorities. “Tony is a great lover of the wall of sound, of creating layers and layers of instruments like in Aquests dinars,” says Dani Alegret, “on the other hand, Roger and Manu work in a very vertical way, the sound is more direct and impressive,” a mix that enriches the album while feeding the musical experience of Els Amics. “We measure our success by what we learn during the work process, because that is what will be on the next album, this is how we have been for almost 20 years,” highlights Ferran Piqué.
Thinking in the long term implies making decisions against the market, such as Un gran cometa, the song with which they close the album, designed above all to complete the sound experience of the album although they are aware that “no one will play it, nor will they ask for it in concerts, at a mercantilist level, are suicide,” Joan Enric acknowledges. “But it makes sense if you want to take the trip that we propose on the album, whoever wants to listen actively will understand why he is there.” A way of working that materializes in details such as the fourth stanza of Les paraules que triem no dir. “We had to lower the tempo of the song because it helps explain the emotion,” explains Ferran Piqué, “but we were clear that taking that step meant stopping playing on the radio,” a circumstance that did not affect the work of Els Amics, delighted that Their music can be heard the more the better, but aware that “our job is to explain stories with beautiful melodies that appeal to feelings.”
