Raül Refree presents “el espacio entre” at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid.
Spanish musician and composer Raül Fernández Miró (Barcelona, 1976) founded and led groups such as Romodance, Sitcom and Élena at the end of the 20th century, until 2002, when he started working as a solo artist with the nickname of Refree, and shortly afterwards he embarked on another artistic and professional career that has made him famous, that of record producer. In this extensive field, he has worked with minority artists such as El Hijo, Els Pets and Nacho Umbert, before standing out as a producer of records by Silvia Pérez Cruz, Kiko Veneno, Rocío Márquez, Christina Rosenvinge, El Niño de Elche, Amaia Romero, La M.O.D.A., Rodrigo Cuevas, Guitarricadelafuente, Pedro Vian, Albert Pla or Rosalía, whose first album, Los Ángeles, he produced, as well as international artists such as the Portuguese Luisa Sobral and Lina, the English Richard Youngs or the American Lee Ranaldo (one of the guitarists of Sonic Youth). Several of the albums that Refree has produced for other artists, such as Granada, with Silvia Pérez Cruz; All Hands Around the Moment, with Richard Youngs; Names of North End Women, with Lee Ranaldo; Lina_ Raül Refree, with Lina; Font de la vera pau, with Pedro Vian, or Los Ángeles, with Rosalía, are also his own albums, in duet with the other artist. In the specific case of Los Ángeles, this is a not very well known fact, which Refree expressly wanted, as he had just finished the presentation tour of Granada, and Raül wanted to avoid that, as it was Rosalía’s first album, it would be overshadowed by possible references or comparisons with Silvia Pérez Cruz. He is also the composer of the original soundtrack for La mesías, the TV series by Los Javis.
In his more personal career, as a musician and composer, he delves into those delicate, intimate and, in a certain sense, experimental terrains that have earned him his prestige as a producer, and it is his last two albums under his name – el espacio entre, from 2023 and La otra mitad, from 2018 – that he plays live this Thursday in a concert that will take place at the Teatros del Canal in Madrid (and which premiered last December at the Rennes Opera, during the 45th Rencontres Trans Musicales in the French city). These two albums are full of the most varied influences, from the impressionist minimalism of Erik Satie to the heterodox ambient experimentation of Aphex Twin, passing through the Renaissance madrigals of Claudio Monteverdi, the rougher sound of Jim O’Rourke or areas close to the folk tradition (including a very sui generis flamenco), all wrapped up homogeneously in a dreamlike atmosphere, offering a wide range of layers and textures, something he has mastered through his work as a successful producer. The foundation on which el espacio entre, the key album that inspires the concert, rests, are the two soundtracks that Refree composed in 2021: one to accompany the screening of La aldea maldita, the silent film by the Spanish filmmaker Florián Rey, originally released in 1930 (from which he takes six compositions), and Un año, una noche, the most recent feature film by the Spanish director Isaki Lacuesta (with four pieces adapted from there), and four reinterpretations of Lamento della ninfa, one of the most famous madrigals by the aforementioned Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi.