“Spain” (Used 72 times)

Primavera Sound is one of the world's most incredible music festivals, unique in the way they unite (even re-unite) world-famous headliners while also digging deep to discover up-and-coming artists. Based in Barcelona, Primavera brings artists from all over the world, with an ear that is uniquely attuned to sounds from Spain's underground. 

Here's a mix featuring music by 32 of the artists who are scheduled to perform at this year's Primavera Sound festival, May thru June 3rd. 2012 will be the fourth year in a row that WFMU broadcasts live from the festival, and we're looking forward to archiving more approved Primavera Sound performances here on the Free Music Archive!

Sharon Van Etten (US) | Shellac (US) | Sictor Valdaña & The Check This Outs (ES) | Siskiyou (CA) | Sleep (US) | Sleepy Sun (US) | Sleigh Bells (US) | Spiritualized (UK) | Sr. Chinarro (ES) | Stasi (ES) | Steven Munar & The Miracle Band (ES) | Tall Firs (US) | Templeton (ES) | The Afghan Whigs (US) | The Chameleons (UK) | The Cure (UK) | The Drums (US) | The Experimental Tropic Blues Band (BE) | The Field (SE) | The Free Fall Band (ES) | The Ganjas (CL) | The Go! Team djs (UK) | The Lions Constellation (ES) | The Men (US) | The Olivia Tremor Control (US) | The Pop Group (UK) | The Rapture (US) | The Right Ons (ES) | The War On Drugs (US) | The Wedding Present plays Seamonsters (UK) | The Weeknd (CA) | The xx (UK) | Thee Oh Sees (US) | Trash Talk (US) | Unicornibot (ES) | Univers (ES) | Veronica Falls (UK) | Villarroel (ES) | Void Ov Voices (HU) | Washed Out (US) | Wavves (US) | White Denim (US) | Wilco (US) | Wild Beasts (UK) | Wolves In The Throne Room (US) | Xavier Baró (ES) | Yann Tiersen (FR) | Yo La Tengo (US)

Check out many more select recordings from past Primavera Sound festivals as we look forward to Primavera 2012!

Lüger is a psychedelic/kraut-rock inspired group from Madrid, Spain.

"Monkeys Everywhere" is the anthemic opening track to Lüger's Giradiscos release, Concrete Light. The album is a free download, and also available on 180gr. vinyl. 

Luger on the FMA  |  Vinyl  |  Giradiscos

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This is today's #FMAmp3, a new series offering a daily gem from the FMA's library of 45,000+ curated, free & legal mp3s. Distributed via our RSS, twitter, fbook, and other channels—it's music that wants to be shared!

A new musical group orbits Barcelona with a proposal that wouldn't let you down. La Piccola Orchestra Gagarin lives up to its name in every way. It's small because there are only three players, but it sounds like an original orchestra (with instruments tuned to that point). And "Gagarin" is a nod to history's first cosmonaut launched into space, with whom they share the same uncertainty when they go up on stage, never rehearsed.

This trio of the Italian Paolo Angeli (Sardinian prepared guitar), the Russian Sasha Agranov (cello) and Catalan Oriol Roca (drums) has released the album Platos Combinados - "Mixed Dishes" - which is a true pleasure. All improvised on the spot, by the way, and characterized by creative freedom with no additives.

Who knows which planet they are on looking to for inspiration? But if you want a clue, know that their style is as much pop art as free jazz, indie and folk music of Sardinia.

Every day, the FMA's curatorial crew gets tipped off to new artists looking to share their work via the Free Music Archive. We go through curators because we simply can't host everything, and even if we could afford it, the curated aspect is what sets our library apart. Because we're building such a unique yet broad collection of free, inspiring music, we're consistantly amazed by the musicians who find us before we can find them.

The Andalusian group La Barca de Sua is one recent example, and we're proud to host their latest Creative Commons release. A pioneering copyleft band, La Barca de Sua formed in the Albaycin, a neighborhood on a mountain overlooking the Alhambra and the downtown area of Granada, Spain. Raúl Lucas (spanish guitar, composer), Luigi Ramos (electric guitar), Ignacio García (bass) and Inwit Puntotk (percussion), Carmen Caballero (vocals) and Emilio Parrilla (clarinet, sax) create music that feels like pop but draws inspiration from dub, progressive rock, jazz, and a heavy dose of regional flamenco.

When I learned that La Barca de Sua had been featured on a series of Creative Commons compilations called "Tanto Talento," put together by El País in 2006, I went about trying to track down the compilations to hear what else Spain's most popular daily newspaper had selected, but was dismayed to find that the compilations are no longer hosted by El País. Apparently, when the journal was forced to make cutbacks, they decided that hosting free music was not worth the expense.

The same day, I came across "Archiving Is the New Folk Art," an essential read by Kenneth Goldsmith of Ubu Web (also WFMU's own "Kenny G") riffing off a quote from Rick Prelinger (Prelinger Archives). Comparing archiving to quliting, Kenny G describes how "the advent of digitial culture has turned each one of us into an unwitting archivist."

With the twitter help of our unwitting archivist friend Richard "Elsoberano" (of Sesión Futura), I was able to find the compilations mirrored across a couple of other websites (v1, v2). they have some good music but the best mp3s we could find were 128k, and so I have yet to listen to the whole thing, and one of the folders contained no id3 tags so the file's just sitting here in my Incoming folder...

...which reminds me of another great quote from Kenny G's piece: "I spend much more time acquiring, cataloging and archiving my artifacts these days than I do actually engaging with them." So if a paper of record like El País won't back things up, then it'll be the new folk artists who decide what music survives to reach future generations.

The common childhood belief that our toys come to life when we are not watching has now been proven. The toys have been recorded making their own music in the night.

La Rainbow Toy Orchestra 9-song release FAMILY ALBUM is now on the Free Music Archive.