Loves good atmosphere

Muchacho & Los Sobrinos have an amazing show to offer. (Photo: Marianne Lystrup)

We were with 'Gutungen and the nephews' on a trip to Sandane. I'll say hello and say that there was life on the bus!

From the hot city of Barcelona come the nine dancing, singing and playing gypsies – yes, they have no problem with that name, they are the guarantor of their tradition. We will return to the name ' Muchacho & Los Sobrinos '. The mission for Førdefestivalen is their first encounter with Scandinavia and they are full of praise for the beautiful nature, the friendly welcome and how professional the festival is. And Ingrid Risnes, their volunteer hostess, has them pressed to her warm, tattooed chest. She tidys up when they need something, and kindly but firmly herds them into the bus when it's time to leave.

 

Enrique Serviole makes good memories of the beautiful nature of West Norway. (Photo: Marianne Lystrup)

Although that's not all Ingrid can arrange. The heat that has settled over Førde These first days of the festival, for example, can be mostly for Spaniards, when the bus has no air conditioning. But problems are meant to be sung away, it seems. We haven't even got on wheels yet, so they set off. There are also no sour looks that they will be 'monitored' by a journalist on the trip - I am enthusiastically welcomed with a song. It flies over me in many voices and with a lot of improvisation, to the rhythmic accompaniment of 'palmas' - which is not the swinging of palm branches, but the mention of the very special clapping that is an essential part of their musical tradition.

Look at the nice picture I got! (Photo: Marianne Lystrup)

It takes an hour to drive from Førde to Sandane, but Miguel, Sam, Jack, Jonathan, Juan, Antonio, Alba, Enrique and Raquel are not thrown away with impunity. They talk, sing, play with their mobile phones and admire the beautiful nature that appears outside the windows of the bus. In the back, Enrique Serviole, who is the younger brother of the leader of the group, whom they call Muchacho – the little boy – has found a guitar that he sits and practices on. His role is otherwise to dance, clap and play the cowbell.

Enrique Serviole learns some tricks from Sam Mosquetón as the bus heads towards Sandane. (Photo: Marianne Lystrup)

But in this group, there is a point that everyone can fill multiple roles. It is a legacy from the environment they sprang from: the lush gypsy neighborhood of Reda la Cera in Barcelona. The training takes place by the young people hanging around those who are older and know more, and in this way they pick up a little here and a little there, which they then develop into their own.

Muchacho is the leader of the group. His real name is Miguel Serviole, but he calls himself Muchacho, which means 'the little guy'. (Photo: Geir Birkeland)

This is also where the group gets its name from. The leader Miguel Serviole is now a grown man with a gray beard and a marked face, but once he was a little boy who ran around the streets and sang in the church choir with the others. His grandmother called him just 'the boy', and that's how the name stuck with him. "Muchacho is me. Miguel is just him here," he says mischievously, posing ready for a profile photo like a criminal.

Then there was the rest of the group – Los Sobrinos . They are not all his nephews, of course, but they took the name to suggest that they all feel like kinsmen. Some of them are, while the rest are playmates from a long time ago and feel related.

Jack Jean Tarradellas films the others in the group. Nice to have in these internet times! (Photo: Marianne Lystrup)

At Byrkjelo we stop for a quick pee break, but it's not done that quickly, because here it's great to shoot some video! The singer and percussionist in the group, Jack Jean Tarradellas, is a chump with a camera, and the group gets busy singing, dancing and having fun in the new landscape.

Oh yeah, we're coming! Just going to take a little selfie first! (Photo: Marianne Lystrup)

But the Gloppen Hotell in Sandane is the destination, and Ingrid herds us back into the bus. Once there, we roll out of the bus, sweaty but happy. Now rigging and sound check await, even though it might be tempting to sit down at the tables in the garden with something cold in a glass, like they have, the guests sitting there.

– I'm starving, says Raquel Vicente. It's been a long time since lunch, but there's no food planned until after the concert, which starts at eight. Ingrid finds a solution, and brings a huge plate of real Norwegian milk chocolate that they share. 

A little snack is needed. Artist host Ingrid Risnes can afford most of it. (Photo: Marianne Lystrup)

The stage is small. How can they get enough legroom up there, all nine of them – especially for dancing? Well, as mentioned – with singing, most things go well. They rig and arrange and the dancer Raquel checks the sound on the floor with her red shoes. On the linoleum it felt like walking in swamp, but on the black stage tiles she gets a response when she plays with her feet. “This makes me happy,” she smiles contentedly. She lifts up her dress, and then dances in the red shoes with powerful, high heels that crackle like machine guns.

Then everything is ready for the concert. 'Gutungen og nevøane' goes to a lounge to wait out the last few minutes.

The audience is small but enthusiastic. (Photo Geir Birkeland)

But where is the queue of people who want to feel the intense rhythms in their summer bodies? It's past eight o'clock, and there are only about as many people in the hall as expected. artists on stage. This could be really exclusive. A few minutes later, a few more people come in, but there's still plenty of room. I'm wondering what it'll be like for the band when they come and see so few people in the hall.

'The boy and his nephews' are having a great time on stage and their enthusiasm is contagious to us in the audience. (Photo: Marianne Lystrup)

But what did I mention? Everything is solved with song! They didn't notice that the audience was small. And I quickly realized that it's like what singer and clapper Alba Bioque tells me after the concert – that they have the same fun whether there are many or few people listening. The secret is that they have so much fun together on stage. They simply love a good atmosphere, so if he's not there, they make him...

Enrique Serviole gets people dancing with him. (Photo: Marianne Lystrup)

It doesn't take many beats before they have managed to infect us with their enthusiasm and it is clear that several in the audience are grateful when Raquel comes and picks us up on the floor to dance. This is music that it is natural to move to.

Raquel Vicente (who holds dance classes in Rumba Catalana on Friday) and Alba Bioque are some rawhides at 'palmas' (Photo: Geir Birkeland)

Muchacho's songs are a lot about the good life and about love of course. But he also writes songs that are a bit cautiously critical of society. One of them is about the outrageously rising housing prices in Barcelona, which means that young people can't afford their own homes and end up living at home with their parents for long periods of time. But he dresses the criticism in humor. Despite everything, there is a high party factor in their music. You can watch a video about this song on Youtube.

El Alquiler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Via-R6IX4NA )

Muchacho uses the guitar case for percussion. (Photo: Marianne Lystrup)

The style they use is called Catalan rumba, and they have learned from the best, the legendary Peret , with whom they played together before he died. Now they themselves are one of the foremost exponents of this style, which is characterized by high tempo, characteristic double-clapping, various congas and bongos and other things that can create rhythm, as well as several guitars that are treated in a fierce, rasping plectrum-like way. There is no quiet 'Oslo-picking' here. And that even a guitar case can be an exciting rhythm instrument, Muchacho shows in a solo where he elicits a myriad of effects with just his hands on the case.

After a terrific encore, where Raquel and Enrique dance with the audience, it's over. They're hungry for smoke. And response. And food. And they're wondering why so few people wanted to buy the album they brought, the only one they've released so far: Carabutsí. Streaming services have gained much more power in Norway than in most other countries, but it's not so easy for them to know.

When we get back on the bus at eleven o'clock, you'd think the musicians were completely pumped up and would lie like corpses in their seats afterwards. No way! Now it really starts. One of them starts a rhythmic groove into the bus microphone, and that's the signal for others, who join in with singing and clapping. Soon the whole bus is in a frenzy. One after the other sings comments on what has happened, what we see out the window or just something or other that comes to mind, and others respond. And all the while this wild clapping, so thrilling that it must be able to bring people out of a coma. It's the wildest chanting I've ever heard in my life and I feel like I might be a bit of a gypsy too.

On Friday they have dance classes and on Saturday night there is a concert at Larris Scene. Then all those in Sandane who didn't come to the concert there can come over to Førde and get a little musical fever.

Marianne Lystrup

ml@skriveliv.no