The first piano that came into his house was dilapidated, it had an F sharp that wouldn’t go down, “when you passed by it your finger would get caught,” and it was so old that it couldn’t be tuned to tune. “A was playing and I was playing a C,” remembers Laura Andrés, able since she was a child to distinguish the nuances of music thanks to her absolute pitch, a gift that helped her go to the conservatory, earn a living with music and, As the years went by, he traveled to Venus, the title of his third piano album, where he made a stellar journey through the universe of emotions. Minimalist music, or whatever you want to call it, the Catalan pianist’s heartfelt songs are the result of a long career where everything has happened, from playing at weddings to Operación Triumph, from collaborating with Shakira to being Andreu Buenafuente’s teacher, with who collaborates in Vosaltres mateixos, the new TV3 program.
“It’s as if I had lived several lives,” explains Laura Andrés while preparing the first concerts to present ‘Venus’. Her path was interrupted at age 24 when she was diagnosed with lymphoma and had to reset the counter. Years later she reset everything again by moving to Barcelona, ??the first step on the path that took her from teaching to the stage, and from there to the stars, on an album that features the collaboration of Ara Malikian. Emotions contained between the silence of the universe and the brightness of the stars that will soon star in an immersive experience at the Ideal museum in Barcelona, ??where images of space will flood the walls of the room to the rhythm of the music of Laura Andrés. It will be from February 21 to 25, as part of a tour that will begin in January.
Madness or courage led her to publish her own music, three albums in just three years, the last, Venus, like a journey to the brightest star. “The first song I composed was Stardust, and the next was Maat Mons, which is a crater on that planet, so I thought I was getting something very galactic.” A fan of astronomy and astrology, Andrés’ themes speak of much closer things, changes, fears, longings and desires. Also about stories with names and surnames like Nura, “it is dedicated to a former student, the first one I had,” she explains. Years after losing track of her, he met her mother and learned from her that he had died, a sudden death. “I came home with this feeling of loss of a girl whom I stopped seeing when she was 8 years old, but I had always had her in mind because she was my first student. “I was very sad for all the time I had missed, and I composed a song to release all this emotion.”
“I was a piano teacher for many years, but after the pandemic I started playing and ended up leaving teaching,” explains Laura Andrés without forgetting to point out that she is passionate about teaching, but life told her that she had to do something else. Before that “I had never felt like I had something to say,” he explains, “it is an educational issue, after the conservatory I had to look for a good job and a salary at the end of the month. Who risks throwing everything overboard to create your project? “You have to be crazy or very brave.”
In his songs there are no lyrics that explain the meaning of the notes, “it gives the listener freedom to make their own emotional journey,” he explains about some pieces that are reminiscent of Ludovico Einaudi or Yann Tiersen. “My palette is similar to these authors, it is not classical piano but it is not jazz either,” it is the music that comes from within, “simplify things, no great tensions or complicated chords.” It is a sound that helps her find peace, born from within her, “it is as if my soul spoke and told me ‘you are crazy enough, and the world is going too fast.’”
“I have played everything and everywhere, starting with classical training, for which I am very grateful,” explains Laura Andrés to draw the origin of her music. “I have done jazz although I am not a jazzwoman, I have played everything that was asked of me at weddings and events, pop or classical, also at dinners where no one pays attention to what is played.” From this variety was born a sound palette enriched by his eclectic tastes, “from funky to jazz or rock, in my house I heard everything, including Iron Maiden or Metallica.” Although when he wants to relax he goes back to his origins, to Bach, “it’s like cleaning,” he explains, and he doesn’t forget to point out that he covers all kinds of things, “when I do sound checks I get La fame, by Rosalía.”
Their third album, after
