Musical ink which the memory never forgets

There is music that we have tattooed on our soul. Songs which penetrated us, marking our skin and our memory. Themes we return to, time and time again, because they are musical guides where we recognise the events, happy or sad, along life’s course.

Mayte Martín (Barcelona, 1965), is one of the most flamenco and authentic cantaoras on the scene. She is also a musical traveller, a tolerant artist who -perhaps because of her flamenco wisdom or, simply because she is guided by passionately listening to her heart-, has always connected with the beat of these popular songs where emotional intensity transcends time, frontiers, and languages. In 1996, alongside the great Tete Montoliu, the two gave tribute to these, the extraordinary album Free Boleros.

In this key, with a delicate, subtle quartet of piano, bass, percussion, the eclectic Mayte Martín looks at her, and our, emotional mind. She puts together a selective songbook of affinities which brings together hymns like Gracias a la vida, Te recuerdo Amanda, Procuro olvidarte, Eu sei que vou te amar or Alfonsina y el mar, to weave a musical tapestry. This texture not only recalls songs that tell a story in three minutes, but it also pays tribute to the troubadours -Violeta Parra, Víctor Jara, Vinicius de Moraes, Mercedes Sosa, Jacques Brel…- who, as expert tattooists left their design imprinted on the bas-relief of the skin. A place where the memory does not forget, and where it is so deeply engraved, its ink may never be erased.