December 12, 2014

Oriol Roca – Solo

ORIOL ROCA SOLO

“The most significant part of his solo work is that we are faced with one of the few drummers- and musicians in general – capable of constructing with his instrument a beautiful and poetic narrative discourse.” Martí Farré, Nativa (ESP)

Barcelona born drummer Oriol Roca had no intention to release a solo album. He didn’t even plan to perform solo, for that matter. And yet, La Tomba dei Giganti is his first outing under his own name. In August 2009, Paolo Angeli, an amazing Italian improviser, invited Oriol to perform at Isole che Parlano, an arts festival held in the tiny village of Palau, in the Italian island of Sardinia. Italian sound engineer Roberto Monari happened to be there with his recording equipment to document the festival. Oriol was struck to recognize himself so strongly in the music, and he realized it was closer to the way he felt about music than anything else he’d ever done before. And thats how Roca’s first ever solo album, recorded on the evening of his first ever solo performance, came to be.

When playing solo Roca expands his set using all kinds of cymbals, different drums, objects, metal bars, plastic bags, stones, toys, bags of sand, a cheap wood flute, kitchen utensils, mini bells, Chinese sticks, an original 22″ Paiste gong from 70’s a good friend gave him… anything capable of creating sound is welcome to explore in a free musical form the infinite possibilities of textures, density, dynamics we’re all surrounded by.

ORIOL ROCA: drums, percussion and objects

“Oriol Roca is a drummer with a simmering sensitivity that does not lack muscle. His playing has continued to send us back to one of the greatest percussionists known to free music, the huge Barry Altschul, whose Oriol appears today as the obvious successor.” Focus Vif (BE)

“Perhaps it’s the restraint displayed by Roca that makes his solo album so compelling, but the forty minutes flew right by and I was sad when the album ended.” All About Jazz (USA)

“Oriol Roca, drummer although it would be better to define him as percussionist, of which I have always thought that he has a great instinctive intelligence, (listen to his solo album La Tomba dei Giganti).” Germán Lázaro, Cuadernos de Jazz (ESP)

“Oriol Roca is a drummer and a percussionist continuously looking for new colors.” Claude Loxhay, Jazzaround (BE)

“Oriol Roca bounces from one rhythmic to the next, coloring more than hitting, draws air movements more than he structures.” Diane Gastellu, Citizenjazz (FR)

“Oriol Roca is undoubtedly an energetic and creative drummer.” Joël Plagier, Jazzman Magazine (FR)

“Roca enters into another complex and unpredictable series of patterns which would serve most other drummers as a solo, but here it’s simply his agile contribution to the landscape.” Dave Foxall, Jazz Journal (UK)

“I’ve been poking around drummer Oriol Roca‘s music for a couple years now, and he always finds a way to gain interest.” Dave Summer, Bird is the Worm (USA)

“The drummer Oriol Roca is not only building an interesting musical career within our country in groups like MUT Trio, or with Giulia Valle and David Mengual to name a few. It also has recognition beyond our borders with groups such as VRAK Trio, the Piccola Orchestra Gagarin, or with the pianist Giovanni Di Domenico.” Pachi Tapiz, Tomajazz (ESP)

“Oriol Roca is an exceptional drummer: flexible and perfectly at ease in polyrhythms and very capable of playing even outside the pulse, a perfect shoulder for other musicians.” Andrea Aguzzi, Italia Paperblog (IT)

ALBUMS

September 1, 2015

LA TOMBA DEI GIGANTI · Free album download

It all happened by chance. In August 2009 guitarist/improviser Paolo Angeli invited me to play at Isole che Parlano, a small festival held in the tiny village of Palau, in the Italian island of Sardegna. He asked me to do a solo concert at a very special spot near Palau -right at the feet of a bronze era monument, La Tomba dei Giganti (Giants’ tomb), erected in 1400BC. Locals strongly believe it is a source of energy with strong healing properties.

Before setting foot in Palau but aware of the connotations of the place, I sketched a plot for what is otherwise a performance of improvised music. It would be a journey of discovery, from sheer sound to dance, music, and then back to sound -only this time around a sound informed by the knowledge acquired along the way. At the end, because the concert took place on my country’s national day -September the 11th- and a bit as an internal joke, I felt like playing Els segadors, the official Catalan hymn, on a cheap flute my brother Roger had brought me as a souvenir from London. I knew none of the people attending the concert, some of them musicians but mostly locals of virtually all ages, would recognize the tune. But it didn’t matter. It moved them all the same. Hence the tittles –Sound, Dance, Music, Life, Wisdom, and Hymn– into which the performance, presented on the album in its entirety and unedited, is divided.

I had no intention to release a solo album, I din’t even plan to perform solo, for that matter. But an italian radio station happened to be there with their recording equipment to document the festival. Then someone send me a copy, I listened it back and I was struck to recognize myself in the music. And that’s how La Tomba dei Giganti, my first ever solo album, recorded on the evening of my first ever solo performance, came to be.

Click on the cover to download the album, and if you like it share it as much as you want!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE ALBUM

Produced by Oriol Roca

Recorded live at Festival Isole che Parlano (Palau, Italy) by Roberto Monari September 11th 2009.

Mixed and mastered by Oriol Roca and Dave Bianchi at The Emergency Room Studio (Barcelona).

Cover artwork by Andrea Cirotto.

Photography by Nanni Angeli

Whatabout Music 2010

“The music on this recording goes back to an era when the world is still wild and untamed. A time when sounds are so new no one has ever heard them, a time when someone realises he can arrange and rearrange those sounds and come up with something new. And that is music and it is powerful, for it can make people dance. And after living his life with joy and intensity he goes back to his homeland to share his newfound wisdom with his people. And there he finally rests to the sound of a hymn.”

January 24, 2016

BAD MUSIC JAZZ #145 by Martí Farré (interview)

Audio interview (in catalan) on Bad Music Jazz radio show hosted by Martí Farré. Focused on the second album in duo with Giovanni Di Domenico Live in Centelles recently released onthe label Whatabout Music, we also discuss my 2010 solo album La Tomba dei Giganti or the upcoming album by Bad Currency.

(…) Pioner del nou free jazz comtal, l’avantguardista avant la lettre Oriol Roca (Barcelona, 1979) és avui un dels bateries més sol·licitats de la parròquia funàmbula del jazz nostrat. Ha posat les baquetes al servei de projectes com el Libera de Giulia Valle, el trio de Joan Díaz, la Free Spirits Big Band i l’Slow Quartet de David Mengual, el Bad Currency de David Soler i la Piccola Orchestra Gagarin de Paolo Angeli, entre molts d’altres. A Oriol Roca també se’l coneix per les seves col·laboracions a l’altra banda dels Pirineus, a França i al Benelux, entre altres indrets. Menys conegut, però, és el seu vessant com a creador, de líder d’un seguit de propostes com ara per exemple el duet que manté amb un vell amic de l’escena italiana: el pianista Giovanni di Domenico. Al programa d’aquesta setmana parlem amb Oriol Roca del seu duet amb Di Domenico i d’altres fites de la seva prolífica biografia. (Listen to the complete interview)

March 8, 2015

ORIOL ROCA – LA TOMBA DEI GIGANTI

La Tomba dei Giganti

Artist : Oriol Roca

Release Date : July 6, 2010

Label : Whatabout Music

Format : Digital

Recorded live at Festival Isole che Parlano (Palau, Italy) by Roberto Monari September 11th 2009. Mixed and mastered by Dave Bianchi at The Emergency Room Studio (Barcelona). Cover artwork by Andrea Cirotto. Photography by Nanni Angeli

Go to ORIOL ROCA

Buy album:

Oriol Roca: drums, percussion, flute and other objects

Press

Perhaps it’s the restraint displayed by Roca that makes this track so compelling, but the five minutes flew right by and I was sad when the album ended. All About Jazz (November 2011)

(…) Oriol Roca, baterista aunque mejor sería decir percusionista, del que siempre he pensado que tiene una gran inteligencia instintiva, (escuchen sino su disco en solo La Tomba dei Giganti). Germán Lázaro, Cuadernos de Jazz (April 2012)

Què és la vida? Què fou primer? D’on venim? On som? On anem? Preguntes que de ben segur es feien les comunitats sedentàries que durant l’Edat de Pedra van construir el monument funerari avui conegut com La Tomba dei Giganti, a la localitat sarda de Palau, i a on a l’actualitat s’hi celebra el festival Isole che Parlano. Què haurien pensat els enterramorts d’aleshores si els haguessin explicat que 3.600 anys més tard un bateria els explicaria l’origen d’una cosa que en diuen música? Oriol Roca, reconegut timbaler de les noves generacions del jazz barceloní, va ser convidat el 2009 a oferir un solo a l’indret més espiritual de Palau. I, dit i fet, se li va acudir mirar d’explicar – interpretar – l’origen de la música com a un fenomen derivat de la invenció – o constatació – del ritme; i del ritme com a una part inherent a la condició humana.

La Tomba dei Giganti és, doncs, un viatge a la recerca de l’abstracció a partir de la nuesa d’un senzill batec de metrònom que, des del primer tall del disc – “Sound” -, transita cap a una major complexitat conceptual. Del so passem a la música – “Music” -, amb un ritme dispers a partir d’harmònics i escomeses melòdiques. El metrònom llavors s’apaga i el so es converteix en moviment: “Dance”, l’inici d’un discurs enrevessat que assoleix el seu màxim clímax a “Life”, metàfora del nomadisme i l’exploració. Un passatge introspectiu, “Wisdom”, dóna a pas a la bretolada del disc: una singular interpretació d’“Els Segadors” amb una flauta d’èmbol. Un final només comprensible si se’ns explica que el treball fou enregistrat un 11 de setembre, i que ens du a concloure que els himnes nacionals – com a gènere musical i com a significat simbòlic – no resten tant lluny del més absolut primitivisme humà. En tot cas, el més significatiu d’aquest treball és que ens trobem davant d’un dels escassos bateries – i músics en general – capaços de construir amb el seu instrument un bell i poètic discurs narratiu. Martí Farré, Nativa (October 2010)

January 24, 2016

BOTTARGA, BATTERIA, BELEZZA by Andrea Cirotto (interview)

Interview (in italian) by Andrea Cirotto on Barcellonando. I happen to have a pretty strong relation with italian culture, for different matters, and here we discuss about where it all comes from, including my solo album La Tomba dei Giganti recorded in Sardegna, my collaborations with italian musicians such as Paolo Angeli, Giovanni di Domenico or Manolo Cabras. At the end of the page there’s a spanish version of the interview.

(…) Apriamo oggi la rubrica di Barcellonando “Gli italiani lo fanno”, dedicata agli italiani che sono a Barcellona e che fanno cose (possibilmente interessanti). E apriamo con Oriol Roca, che non è italiano ma 1) Doverosamente questo è il nostro omaggio a Catalunya (Catalogna non mi piace, in questo blog sempre si scriverà Catalunya) 2) Oriol ha una bellissima relazione con l’Italia, specie con la Sardegna, che ci racconta in questa intervista. Prima pensavo che il batterista era quel tipo che sta dietro la batteria, e sin dall’inizio non ho mai creduto alla storia che Ringo riceveva più lettere d’amore di tutti gli altri Beatles. Se pensate che il batterista solo serve a fare casino mentre gli altri suonano musica, e che alla fine si limita a lanciare le bacchette sul pubblico, dovete continuare a leggere. Ma direi che dovete farlo in ogni caso. (Continue reading)

March 6, 2016

CATALAN SOUNDS 2

Catalan Sounds 2

Artist : Various artists

Release Date : february 1, 2010
Label : Catalan Arts
Format : CD

Oriol Roca appears on the track Wisdom from the album La Tomba dei Giganti by Oriol Roca.

The Institut Ramon Llull presents the new edition of Catalan Sounds, a guide to some of the most interesting music on the Catalan and Balearic scene: some two hundred groups and solo artists that make up a very representative sample of Catalan musical creativity in all its quality, variety and individuality.

Catalan Sounds covers an exceptionally diverse spread of talent, from solidly established outfits to brand new line-ups, with a view to making them and their music known to a wider public. Catalan Sounds is conceived, in short, as a readily usable and effective tool to help promoters and events organizers give all kinds of audiences the chance to enjoy really great music.
The Institut Ramon Llull has a remit to disseminate and promote the Catalan language and Catalan culture abroad. At the present time it is a consortium of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the government of the Balearic Islands. The Institut’s Performing and Visual Arts Department provides an international information and advisory service to promoters, awards travel grants to artists and works with leading venues and festivals around the world.