Live: Fira Mediterrània (Manresa, Catalonia, October 9–12)

Manresa is a handsome town in Catalonia, 60km inland from Barcelona. This October it hosted the 28th edition of the Fira Mediterrània, a fair of music which attracts a large local audience and professionals from across Europe. There’s a cathedral whose present structure dates back to the 14th century and an old bridge that’s from even earlier. The fair took place in parts of the town dating back to the 19th century, with shaded boulevards and theatres and clubs tucked away in the narrow streets.

As the name suggests, the music is Catalan, Spanish and more widely Mediterranean, but there was also a special Balkan focus this year. The sold-out opening concert was by Anna Ferrer, a rising star from Menorca in Catalan-speaking Balearic Islands. She presented a theatrical show – probably hard to export – about the four-generations of bread-making in her family and her anxieties about forsaking it to become a musician. It was called ‘Pa’ (Bread) in Catalan, although the word can also mean ‘friendship’. Ferrer, who has a lovely voice, was accompanied by guitar and percussion. She was curiously dressed in a body stocking which made her appear naked – perhaps a metaphor for the bare truths she presented – but it didn’t seem the most hygienic outfit to bake bread! Her father, indeed a bread maker, was at the back of the stage kneading the dough, and at the end of the show, fresh bread was handed out from the stage, which was delicious.

The female duo L’Arannà come from the smaller Balearic Island of Ibiza (Eivissa in Catalan) and Formentera. Although they were drawing on traditional tunes, their set was dominated by reverb-laden keyboards. A Catalan friend said he could recognise the particular traits from those islands, but without that knowledge it was disappointing. This was not the case with French female duo Cocanha. They have been enthusiastically reviewed and featured in Songlines previously. They sing in Occitan (the old language of Languedoc) and they seemed to be presenting their show in Occitan, which the Catalans appeared to understand – they certainly got laughs in all the right places. Their Occitan songs create their own cross-rhythms and are accompanied by foot tapping and zithers beaten with sticks; inventive and original stuff. They were not the only Occitan group, as there was also Boucs! – three guys with guitars, including Sam Karpienia, the Occitan singer who I spoke to once when he was in the group Forabandit. They lacked the inventiveness of Cocanha but were still enjoyable and good representatives of a lively Occitan scene in France, alongside groups like San Salvador and Massilia Sound System.

Thanks to the Balkan focus, the Ekrem Mamutović Orkestar, Roma musicians from Serbia, were on stage and leading processions through the streets. It’s a while since I’ve heard really superb Balkan brass – it was everywhere 20 years ago – but they delivered; they’re a quality nine-piece, full of raucous energy. Most interesting was Bosnian sevdah singer Božo Vrećo, a sort of cross-dressing dervish – in black high-heels, a green dress and lots of tattoos – accompanied by accordion, guitar, sax and drums. He can sell 4,000 seats in Belgrade, so it was great to see him close-up in an intimate club in Manresa. It was one of the highlights of this remarkable event.