Be My Guest: Barcelona Edition x Liveurope | Los Sara Fontán + Electro Ma Non Troppo + C.O.U. + Cushla

On September 12th and 13th, Apolo presents a very special Be My Guest!

As part of the 10th anniversary of Liveurope, we have programmed eight artists and bands in two days of concerts in showcase format where electronic, folk and pop take center stage to show the best of our house. An opportunity for music lovers to discover everything that is cooking in the Catalan and European scene both emerging and established in the territory.

 ✦ 12 septiembre | Los Sara Fontán + Electro Ma Non Troppo + C.O.U. + Cushla

 ✦ 13 septiembre | Maria Jaume + Marta Knight + Yaunest + Dominik Prok

Liveurope is a pan-European platform for the promotion of emerging music, of which Apolo has been a member since 2014, that is, from the very first moment. This year marks a decade promoting the circulation of artists through the 24 venues across Europe that are part of the platform. A few years during which more than 4,200 concerts have been programmed by artists of up to 40 different nationalities that have allowed the promotion of professional careers as recognized as Rosalía, Hinds, Christine and the Queens, Hania Rani, MØ or Aurora.

The electronic music duo, formed by the experimental emotion of Sara Fontán and the polyrhythmic energy of Edi Pou, started playing 2017 without recording a single album. Now, but, they break with their own norm to release their first LP, “Queda pendiente” (2023). Evidently, they do not do it in an ordinary way: the new work is a compilation of sound elements, imputs, textures and sensations to imagine - no more and no less - than what everyone wants.

Always wanting to go against the music industry and, even so, to continue on the road, their music, created from the combination of a violin, a keyboard, drums, pedal effects and electronic resources, is born and dies on stage. That is why, although we can now listen to them repeatedly wherever we want, each live performance is an unrepeatable liturgy that only belongs to the memory of those who have lived it.

What happens if we take a piece by Bach and add drums, powerful bass and voice effects? Well, the result is something that the duo Electro Ma Non Troppo likes to call “electrobaroque”.

The group formed by soprano Neus Llorens (vocals and sampler) and producer Ignasi Bosch (synthesizers) is medieval "xumba-xumba", that is, what Vivaldi would like to listen to as a rave. Songs that were very popular four hundred years ago, updated with XXI century electronics with the intention of approaching or rediscovering classical music. After a 2023 presenting the project on the stages of the indie scene, they have self-released their first album: “Principium”.

Contrary to the meaning of the acronym, C.O.U. is not a place to study the firmament. The project, which was unveiled for the first time at this year's Sónar, is a center of musical and visual experimentation: psychedelia, dub, jazz, cassette tapes, club and dance that create a shortcut to the unconscious. “If things were easy to explain, the universe wouldn't be a mystery.”

The traditional Irish chant Sean-Nós enters in dialogue with the electronic avant-garde in Cushla, an Irish-Barcelonian collective that in June premieres “Buiongloid”, the first advance of their debut album “Tech Duinn”. A musical experience that crosses borders and translates the Irish cultural heritage into drum machines, analog synthesizers and digital arts. 

Cushla's show is supported by Liveurope, the first pan-European initiative supporting concert venues in their efforts to promote European emerging artists. Liveurope is co-founded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union.