Anells d'aigua
Ariola, 1985
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On the 20th of January 1985 Maria del Mar Bonet presented the album Anells d’Aigua in the Auditorium in Palma. She was accompanied by the Ensemble de Musique Traditionelle de Tunis, led by Fethi Zhgonda, maintaining a creative friendship that culminated with the participation of the Tunisian group on this album. Also accompanying her were Lautaro Rosas, Javier Mas, the new member Jordi Rallo on the Indian tabla and electric bass with Stephen de Swardt, as well as Salvador Font on the drums and Antoni Saigi. On the album there are other collaborations such as that of Rafael Subirachs singing in Ànima morta, Gregorio Paniagua playing the cello and hurdy-gurdy in Dansa de la primavera. The majority of the songs on the album are poems by Maria del Mar Bonet except for two, the ballad of El Salt de la bella dona, written by Gabriel Janer Manila, and the traditional Catalan song Ànima morta. The song Dansa de la primavera is written by Maria del Mar Bonet based on early Jewish music adapted by Gregorio Paniagua.
Many of the songs on Anells d’aigua such as Bir-demet yasemen, an Armenian song where Maria del Mar Bonet wrote a poem about desire, Viure sense tu or Dansa de la primavera would become classics in her repertoire. This is the album where the oriental source that was so much sensed on earlier records really came into force here.
She would later present the record in the Palau de la Música Catalana on the 26th of March, and on the 28th of the same month in the Teatro Alcalà in Madrid. She toured Catalonia, with a great concert on the steps of the Cathedral of Girona in June, and within the Festival de Torroella de Montgrí in the summer.
The nights in the Plaça del Rei of that year, 1985, where she presented Anells d’aigua, were also accompanied by the Tunisian musicians and her group with Lautaro Rosas, Javier Mas, Jordi Rallo, Antoni Saigi, Salvador Font and Stephen de Swardt. On the night of the 6th of July, when she finished her performance, she had to rush out, with a local police escort helping her cross the city of Barcelona to the FC Barcelona stadium. Lluís Llach was giving a macro concert where he had invited her to sing with him and Marina Rossell, the Cant de l’enyor.
Frankfurt, Brussels and Cluses were other cities where the singer gave recitals that year.
Between January and February 1986 she was invited to visit Brazil by the Brazilian artist Milton Nascimiento. They prepared a joint concert that they wanted to bring to the Spanish State. The project became a tour of six concerts, starting in the Poble Espanyol in Barcelona in the Grec ’86 festival, and visiting the cities of Alcalà, Madrid, Segovia, Àvila, Palencia and Donosti (San Sebastian).
In May, within the setting of the II Congrés Internacional de la Llengua Catalana two macro concerts for three voices were scheduled. In the first, which took place in the Parc del Mar de Palma, Maria del Mar Bonet, Lluís Llach and Marina Rossell sang before 15,000 people. The second concert was broadcast live by TV3 from the Plaça de la Sagrada Família in Barcelona on the 9th of May where there were an estimated 60,000 attending, and where Ovidi Montllor took the place of Marina Rossell.
Within the Grec ’86 festival, Maria del Mar Bonet celebrated her 10 years in the Plaça del Rei, and did so with songs from Anells d’aigua and from what would be her next album, Gavines i dragons. Des de Mallorca a l’Aguer, La Casa de l’amic, Carta a l’exili, were heard for the first time that summer in the Plaça del Rei. The musicians accompanying her were Javier Mas, Jordi Rallo, Steve De Swardt, Antoni Saigi, Enric Esteve, Salvador Font, Víctor Ammann, Alex Villier, Danilo Cagmani.
On the 10th of December 1986 in Madrid the Festival of 25 years of the Nova Cançó was held where Maria del Mar Bonet, Lluís Llach and Raimon all attended.
