El Pony Pisador presents their new album OCELLS

El Pony Pisador releases their highly anticipated album, “OCELLS”. It is an 11-track work that captures the diversity of traditional Catalan music, blending it with new sounds and exploring themes ranging from medieval stories to humorous narratives and children’s tales. Additionally, it features collaborations with Jonatan Penalba and Tarta Relena.

The album OCELLS (Guspira Records 2024) presents a rich and imaginative musical palette, with melodies ranging from revolutionary epic to the delicacy of medieval music. This album reflects the artistic maturity of the group and their ability to explore new musical directions without losing their essence, establishing them as one of the benchmark groups in the Catalan music scene. El Pony Pisador offers an experience that captivates both the general audience and folk experts, incorporating new instruments they have learned to play for the album, such as the accordion, bagpipe, and cavaquinho.

El Pony Pisador explores the sound of traditional Catalan song in “Un Pardal al Got de Vi,” incorporating accordion, clarinet, flabiol, and violin, referencing the Germà Negre group and the wine and tavern songs of Jaume Arnella. They also draw inspiration from the sardana in “Els Animals Més Bells” with a lyric full of wordplay with bird names, following the stylistic canons of Port Bo and adding a whistle as a musical resource. One of the most fun and fast-paced songs on the album is “Rafa ‘El Garrafa’, el gafarró del Garraf, agafa garrofó per guanyar-se les garrofes,” a song with a frenetic rhythm full of stimuli, entanglements, and Catalan tunes from the dance of Contradanses Boges of the Solsona town festival and the Polca del Cop de Peu.

A sea shanty couldn’t be missing either. “Ala Negra” is a sea shanty where they use musical resources from the usual sound tradition of the Mediterranean, common in Turkish and Greek music, to tell the adventures of a smuggling ship, almost ghostly. We also find the first preview, “Gran Manual per Identificar Ocells,” “La Guerra de l’Emú,” which narrates an Australian historical event with Celtic punk energy, and “L’Espantaocells,” where they explore the sound of medieval fantasy music.

The collaborations on this album are with Jonatan Penalba, a reference in traditional Valencian singing, and Tarta Relena, a Barcelona duo formed by Marta Torrella and Helena Ros that incorporate electronic beats into folk music. “Abecedari” with Jonatan Penalba adds a distinctive touch to the fusion of Mediterranean and oriental sounds, while Tarta Relena’s participation stands out in “Strelitzia,” a piece that combines Bulgarian and Georgian harmonies with elements of the Italian taranta.

El Pony Pisador captures in OCELLS the richness of Catalan influences and their passion for history, without losing, of course, their characteristic sense of humor, in an album that is now available everywhere.