Astrud

They play at FAM, at Primavera Sound and even at the Palais Tokyo in Paris. In addition to Eduard Alarcón, they also sometimes bring Enric Juncà in the line-up, playing drums.

2005

The group reaches their apex playing all over Spain and visiting Paris again, as well as other European cities like Berlin.

2006

One of their first moments of reflection arrives, and while they process the changes and the vertigo of what has happened in these years, they release “Algo cambió” on Sinnamon, a disc of hard-to-find songs and B-sides, that, above all, gives new fans access to many of those hard-to-find songs which had only been released as B-sides on their singles.

They play as much as they can all over the Spanish map, once again, stopping in some of the most important events, like Gay Pride day, Summercase Festival, Pop Mission, Indyspensable and Altaveu.

2007

In 2007 they release their last disc with Sinnamon, “Tú no existes”, where they return to the instrumentation and the pop concept that abounded on “Gran Fuerza”, while still maintaining high levels of bizarreness. “Son los padres” was a total Christmas song, revealing the eternal secrets of the three wise men; “Minusvalía” became one of their biggest hits, full of vitriol; they dedicated a song to Noam Chomsky and another to Tom, the one from Myspace, “Un millón de amigos”. Once again they showed us their capacity to be original and impressive.

They include Laura Basterra on keyboards and they go on another successful tour that brings them, once again, to all the events where their presence is now a requisite: Summercase, FIB, Festival Do Norte, APTC, Mundosol, Lemonpop, etc.

After an initiative thought up by Jordi Oliveras, and within the Hipersons Festival, Manolo and COL·LECTIU BROSSA play a small show in the Llantiol Theater in Barcelona. That day they play as a trio (violin, cello and accordion), but they lay the foundation of what will be a future collaboration.

Since then there has been a silence from the group that Genís takes advantage of to work on his parallel project, HIDROGENESSE.

2009

ASTRUD return to the scene, this time accompanied by COL·LECTIU BROSSA, an instrumental band, who give new life to their prior songs using instruments like the violin, the accordion, the wheel fiddle and the marimba. Their few performances find a band that has restructured its musical discourse, joining pop with concrete music, classical music and folk, while still maintaining their overwhelming and inimitable personality.

2010

Finally, after a few more shows, “Lo Nuevo” is released, the album by ASTRUD with COL·LECTIVO BROSSA, which comes out with backing from Elefant Records. The album includes two new songs, “Lo popular” and “La música de las supercuerdas”, but it is primarily dedicated to reformulating the group’s discourse. In an exercise of self-questioning, which reaches sublime levels in the video that precedes the album, specifically the video for “La música de las supercuerdas”, ASTRUD redefine and reinvent themselves while never losing an inch of their personal identity. Hits like “Minusvalía”, “Cambio de idea” and “Esto debería acabarse aquí” are reborn in new sounds, once again leaving the whole world amazed, with influences from classical music and folk, without losing any of its pop strength.

In the meantime, they are preparing another album, this time of all new songs.
 

2011

ASTRUD have returned to the forefront of the national music scene through the main door. It’s not for nothing that they’ve been highlighted in all the best-of lists from the last year, and they’ve made rivers of ink run thanks to their reinvention with COL.LECTIU BROSSA to create that inexplicable and indescribable “greatest hits” that was “Lo Nuevo”. Their live shows are giving people a lot to talk about again and that video that Jimmy Gimferrer created for “La Música de las Supercuerdas” confirmed ASTRUD’s quality as an inimitable group, capable of questioning everything, breaking down pre-established conceptions in order to totally reconstruct them and remodel them from a totally different pop perspective, which has won the admiration of the intellectual crowd, the skeptical crowd, the anarchist crowd… They have everyone at their feet.

And yes, as with all “greatest hits” albums, a lot of us missed those songs that we wished were there but weren’t. Well, this coming April 25th, a new digital single from the Catalan band is going on sale, and it will include the already released version of “Lo Popular”, with its absolutely incredible lyrics, its folkloric roots and its modern and powerful form. And the B-side will have the version that, with COL.LECTIU BROSSA, registered one of their biggest songs, “Hay Un Hombre en España”. Irreverent, wild, original, fresh, even more sublime in this new form, with that accordion that gives the song its Mediterranean air.

But if that weren’t enough, we also have a new video by Gimferrer for “Lo Popular”, which works as a perfect continuation of the previously mentioned video for “La Música de las Supercuerdas”, and in which we have access to a fabulous exercise in creativity, swaying moments and marvelous surrealism, unexpected reactions, and all those characteristics we can’t find anywhere outside of ASTRUD’s universe. This is why we love them so much. That, and because they continue to prove themselves melodically infallible. And lyrically. And with their album covers… Could this be true love?