New album, new spot, new documentary, great concert at Sant Jordi and, of course, new book and new comic to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Dharma Electric Company. The festivities for half a century of formation reach their climax with a remarkable outpouring of events that yesterday had the focus at Comanegra publishing house with the presentation of two books, Companyia Elèctrica Dharma, 50 years and the children’s comic book Dharma rock guitar, two approaches to a formation that has become in its own right in the history of the music of Catalonia.
Produced with unpublished material taken from the archives of the band of the Fortuny brothers, Companyia Elèctrica Dharma, 50 years ago a journey through the five decades of the group’s life narrated by the voices of different writers and journalists, among them Àngel Casas, a neighbor of the Fortuny brothers in Sants, who left his last lines in this book before he died in October last year. The work discovers the different stages of the Dharma, born around a commune in the seventies and named in honor of The Dharma Pirates, a work by the beatnik Jack Kerouac.
After its inaugural concert on February 20, 1972 at La Font d’en Fargues in the Barcelona neighborhood of Horta, Dharma became a regular at concerts and festivals during the years of “the disappointment of plurinational Spain” , as Lluís Fortuny describes them, recalling that short period of time in which the formation was heard throughout Spain and triumphed in festivals such as Burgos in 1975, with Franco still alive, where their music was defined as “rock with roots ” and was received by a generation in search of novelty.
The emergence of the seventies consolidated a formation that made a place in Catalan music with its own mix of rock, folk and traditional music, despite the fact that they continue to define themselves as an eminently rock band.
Throughout its history, the longest of any Catalan-language rock formation, Dharma has experienced great performances, such as Rock in Rio in 2001 or the Sant Jordi crowd for its 20th anniversary, in 1994. “No ha it’s been a path of roses”, remembers Joan Fortuny thinking especially about the deaths of his two brothers, Esteve and Josep, who marked the band’s worst moments.
The unmistakable sound of Joan Fortuny’s soprano sax has accompanied Dharma throughout their career, in which they have released 25 albums, to which on April 1st will be added Cançons arraconades, a compilation of 15 unpublished tracks recorded throughout of the history of the formation that will appear on March 31; quite a gift for the most seasoned fans of the band, since the tracks are published as they were recorded in the different periods, keeping the original sound, sometimes of low quality.
The closing of this Dharma Year will take the form of a concert, once again on Sant Jordi and again for Sant Jordi. It will be on April 22 when the group will perform in what they foresee as the last major concert of their career, in which they will be accompanied by artists such as Albert Pla, Gossos, Sopa de Cabra, Maria del Mar Bonet, Quimi Portet, The Tyets and the activist Jordi Cuixart, among others, in addition to a large representation of Catalan popular culture.
A final (big) farewell to a band that will henceforth be remembered in its neighborhood, Sants, with two spaces next to the Mercat Nou metro stop. One will pay tribute to the deceased brothers Esteve and Josep and will be inaugurated on April 1 with a performance included by Dharma. The other will be located right in front, on the other side of the street, and will be built when the renovation is finished for the transfer of the Vapor Vell library. A physical space to remember an indelible sound.
