Llorar

Like with many groups, Luis and Ani met at a party that a mutual friend threw. Luis Ryoga had played keyboards in hotels and had written songs for audiovisuals, theater and advertising. He currently also is a part of bands like NADA SALDRÁ BIEN and MINERA. Ani had gotten her start singing in groups like SILLY BANG and SERVICIO BAR, but her first big steps were collaborating with Evripidis on their “La Noche De Las Versiones Vivientes” (The Night Of The Living Versions), and then as a result of that, later, with CENTAUROS, Daniel Balaguer’s band. Her work as a DJ, where she goes by the name Plata, also needs to be mentioned, forming a duo with Oro (Oro y Plata DJs), and she DJ’d in Apolo, Freedonia and Razzmatazz’s Pop Bar, among other places.

LINE UP: 

ANA CABALLERO (ANI) (vocals / Barcelona)

LUIS RYOGA (keyboard, computer and vocals / Barcelona)

The thing is, there was immediate chemistry, and the idea of forming a band started taking shape, although it did not quite come together just yet. Finally, LLORAR became a reality in a pre-apocalyptic winter, and the pillars it is based on are hundreds of WhatsApp text and voice messages full of ideas, music and aesthetics. Luis suggests to Ani that they participate in the competition Prom Fest; they record their first song, a version of Bustamante’s “Dos Hombres Y Un Destino”, and they make it all the way to finalist stage. Then in April 2020 their cover is released on the Prom Fest compilation cassette along with covers by other groups like CHAVALES, CARLOTA, Stephen Please, Yana Zafiro and MEJORES AMIGAS. This is the moment when LLORAR officially begins as a band, with a pristine statement of intentions and full of excitement and spontaneity.

Ani is influenced by LOS FRESONES REBELDES, PAPA TOPO, Jeanette, KIKÍ D’AKÍ and Gigliola Chinquetti. Among Luis’s favorites are MECANO, LA BUENA VIDA, Federico Mompou, Daniel Avery, Yurena, DAFT PUNK, Claude Debussy and LOS PITUFOS MAKINEROS. Both of them love nature and art, and also the day-to-day, and the reality that surrounds them: decadence, drama and beauty. They like being millennials, and they both like a good cry and think people should do it more often.

At the beginning of 2021, their first Digital Single with Elefant Records is being released, as an advance of their Mini-LP for the “New Adventures In Pop” collection for new groups. On this single, they give us two songs with very different tones, both arranged and produced by Luis Ryoga himself. “Te Dejo En Paz” is an exercise in a very sweet techno-punk-pop that hides a crazy, bitter, fun story. It is a song with one of those melodies that immediately gets stuck in your head, but that also offers some curve balls (that strange marimba solo) that give the group its defining personality. Jaume Fiol provides his blazing guitar on this delicious song. Then, “Siempre Iwal” hooks us with its more melodic and melancholic parts: layers of keyboards, dub basses, and a melody that could be the perfect contemporary update of Jeanette or Claudine Longet. Delicacy, witty notions, personality, and harmonies.