Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Carme Riera (b 1948, Palma) has churned out an impressive series of novels, short
stories, scripts and more. Her latest novel,
L'Estiu de l'Anglès
(The English Summer,
2006), tells of a frustrated Barcelona estate agent's decision to spend a month learning
English in a middle-of-nowhere UK town.
Guillem Frontera (b 1945, Ariany) has produced some engaging crime novels, particu-
larly the 1980
La Ruta dels Cangurs
(The Kangaroo Route), in which the murder of the
detective's ex-girlfriend muddies his Mallorca holiday plans.
Anaïs Nin set an erotic short story, 'Mallorca'
,
in Deià. It appeared in the volume
Delta
of Venus
and deals with a local girl who gets into an erotic tangle with a pair of foreign-
ers and pays a high price. Nin stayed in Deià for a year in 1941.
Music
Folk Music
Mallorca, like any other part of Spain, has a rich heritage in folk songs and ballads sung
in Mallorquin. At many traditional
festes
(festivals) in Mallorcan towns you'll hear the
sounds of the
xeremiers,
a duo of ambling musicians, one of whom plays the
xeremia
(similar to the bagpipes) and the other a
flabiol
(a high-pitched pipe). Younger bands
sometimes give these Mallorcan songs a bit of a rough-edged rock sound.
Contemporary Music
Los Valldemossa, who sang Mallorcan folk songs with a jazz feel in Palma's clubs, had
some success overseas - they wound up playing the London circuit and, in 1969, won the
Eurovision Song Contest, which back then actually meant something. They stopped play-
ing in 2001 but their CDs still abound.
The island's best-known singer-songwriter is Palma's Maria del Mar Bonet i Verd-
aguer (b 1947). She moved to Barcelona at the age of 20 to join the Nova Cançó
Catalana movement, which promoted singers and bands working in Catalan. Bonet be-
came an international success and is known for her interpretations of Mediterranean folk
music, French
chanson
(Jacques Brel and company) and experiments with jazz and
Brazilian music.
An altogether different performer is Concha Buika. Of Equatorial Guinean origins, she
was born in Palma in 1972 and rose through the Palma club circuit with her very person-
al brand of music, ranging from hip hop to flamenco to soul. Her second CD,
Mi Niña
