“Thunderous folk and progressive Gregorian”.
This is how Tarta Relena defines itself, the musical duo formed by Marta Torrella and Helena Ros —both born in Barcelona 28 years ago—, whose voices conquer the public with traditional songs accompanied by electronic music.
"There is nothing Gregorian in what we sing, but that description makes people get an idea of what we do," they say.
In the same month they can perform at festivals such as Primavera Sound or Sónar, in a church in Holland or a small town in La Garrotxa.
And they hook viewers with traditional songs from the Mediterranean or Pashtun women from Afghanistan, among others.
“It is amazing that in the Netherlands they are moved by a Majorcan song from centuries ago, but the incredible thing is that such a simple melody endures after so many years”, reflects Marta.
The heart does not understand languages and the voices of Marta and Helena travel through centuries, seas and cultures to disembark in the emotions of those who listen to them.
They have known each other since they were six years old and their stage name comes from a game invented by girls.
“We changed the first letter of our names for the initial of our surnames: Marta for Tarta and Helena for Relena.
When we started to dedicate ourselves to music and they asked us what our name was, we recovered it without thinking about it”, says Marta.
Her parents enrolled them in the same choir as an extracurricular activity and since then they have not separated.
“Then we went to the Can Ponsic Municipal School of Music, where Emilio de la Linde got 16-year-olds to sing Renaissance music on Friday afternoons.
There we discovered a repertoire to which we had not had access”, recalls Marta.
In 2016 they had their first a cappella performance as Tarta Relena and to lengthen the gig they introduced electronic touches.
The experiment worked and thanks to Pumarejo, a cultural shelter that supports the local scene in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, they began to call them.
“We were amazed at how a proposal of Mediterranean, medieval or Sephardic songs performed with our voices and palms was on the circuit
underground”,
says Marta.
In their albums they explain the origin of all the songs.
For example: “Tres Morillas' belongs to the Cancionero de Palacio, one of the most famous in 15th century Spain”, “Tota Pulchra' is a traditional Corsican polyphony” and “Infans qui nascitur' is the melody of a Georgian song that we listen to Hamlet Gonashvili and the lyrics are a mantra that we write in Latin”.
They also do it with humor when they point out that their theme
Figues
is like Björk picking figs in Mallorca.
And in his latest work,
Fiat Lux,
texts by Sappho or Hildegard of Bingen appear.
“It doesn't matter if they lived in the 6th century BC.
C. or in the XII because they tell things that happen to us now.
That is art”, explains Helena.
“Many people have done a great deal of research with oral tradition for years and everything is posted on the internet: from Alan Lomax to the Càntut archive.
We go from link to link for hours, listening and reading, until we have a crush”, explains Marta.
Then they surround themselves with experts who advise them with the lyrics, even through Twitter.
“We saw a tweet from a classical philologist who had analyzed our album
Intercede Pro Nobis,
where there was a song in modern Greek and another in Latin.
We contacted him and now he is our corpse language consultant”, concludes Marta.
Languages that in the voices of Tarta Relena recover life, musicality and seduce the present.
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