Rocío Márquez & Bronquio

Rocío Márquez.

Acclaimed by the press as “the voice of the new generation of cante jondo”, Rocío Márquez (Huelva, 1985) has spent more than a decade building a solid artistic career that today overflows the flamenco scene, where she is already a clear reference and consolidated figure. Her restless personality and her enormous curiosity are evident in her discography, which shows us her great commitment to flamenco tradition as an imperious need to widen the limits of that same tradition, exploring and experimenting with melodies, instrumentation, arrangements and lyrics. After “Aquí y ahora” (2009) and “Omnia Vincit Amor” (2020), the digital EP about ‘Amor Brujo’ recorded with Enrike Solinís and the Euskal Barrokensemble, we find a series of albums with which she has been consolidating her artistic discourse. “Claridad” (2012), “El Niño” (2014), “Firmamento” (2017), “Diálogos de viejos y nuevos sones” (2018) -together with Fahmi Alqhai- and “Visto en El Jueves” (2019) are her discographic works published to date. For the latter, she obtains the Les Victoires du Jazz award for the best world music album, being the first Spanish artist to obtain this achievement. This recognition is added to other important awards such as the Lámpara Minera at the Festival de La Unión, the Giraldillo a la Innovación de la Bienal de Sevilla, the Coups de Coeur de la Academia de Charles Cros (France), the Premio Meridiana de la Junta de Andalucía, the Premio Plaza de España del Gobierno de España or, among many others, the Medalla de Oro de la Petenera, being also the first woman to receive it. In parallel, Rocío develops an intense career of live concerts, combining different formats and proposals with which she constantly tours from the intimate flamenco clubs of Andalusia to the great international temples of music such as the Symphonic Hall of the National Auditorium in Madrid -where she gathers more than 2,000 people-, the Royal Theater, the Palau de la Música in Barcelona, the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville and in L’Olympia and the Philharmonic, in Paris. Beyond the flamenco and classical circuits, Rocío is a regular at indie and pop/rock events such as Primavera Sound or Monkey Week and in the contemporary creation scene, performing at Matadero in Madrid or the CCCB in Barcelona. One of the keys to understand Rocío’s artistic project is her great creative curiosity, which she supports with an enormous interpretative versatility. This is how she collaborates -whether live or in studio- with musicians as diverse as Jorge Drexler, with whom she creates the show “Aquellos puentes sutiles” (2018), Kiko Veneno, Raül Refree, Dani de Morón, Niño de Elche, Diego Carrasco, Bronquio, Marinah (Ojos de Brujo), Christina Rosenvinge, Albert Plá, Arcángel, Carmen Linares, The New Raemon, the Cubero Brothers, Derby Motoreta’s Burrito Kachimba, Rosa Torres Pardo, José Manuel Zapata or the French Ensemble Aedes. Some of the most recent milestones of her career are her appearance alongside Raphael, Jorge Drexler and Rozalén on the cover of a special issue of El País Semanal dedicated to music in Spain or his performance at the 2018 European Film Awards gala, broadcast live for all of Europe. Preciselt, it is worth mentioning her participation in the soundtrack of different film projects such as her version of ‘Me quedo contigo’ included in the film Adiós (Paco Cabezas, 2019) or her interpretation of the song ‘Cuando salga el sol’ in the film Entre dos aguas (Isaki Lacuesta, 2018). She has also participated in the documentaries Menese (Remedios Málvarez, 2019), Se prohíbe el cante (Félix Vázquez and Paco Ortiz 2019) and Nueve Sevillas (Gonzalo García Pelayo and Pedro G. Romero, 2020). In addition to her artistic facet, Rocío Márquez holds a PhD cum laude from the University of Seville with her thesis on “Vocal Technique in Flamenco”, and she is a lecturer in the Master’s Degree in Flamenco Research and Analysis of this institution.

Bronquio.

Jerez-born artist Santiago Gonzalo AKA Bronquio is a young musician of punk tradition and one of the sensations of the Spanish electronic scene. Bronquio has three albums distributed by Altafonte Spain, the last one (Vol. 3) with the collaboration of Nita (Fuel Fandango) and Cris Lizarraga (Belako). After his collaboration in the radio program Hoy empieza todo (Radio 3, RNE), he created the soundtrack for the film Las Gentiles, by the Sevillian director Santi Amodeo. As a producer, he has successfully produced Kiko Veneno’s most recent LP, Sombrero roto, which has been critically acclaimed. He has also produced singles for mainstream artists such as Natalia Lacunza and Anaju. In 2020 he was chosen for Artistas En Ruta (AIE) as well as for the AECID Catalogue of Performing Arts and Music commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the European Union and Cooperation through Excenario.

Fotografías: Lhaura Rain