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Antònia Font

About:

Antònia Font is formed in 1997 by Pau Debon and guitarist Joan Miquel Oliver on the Spanish island Mallorca. The name was chosen after a fellow female student on university which the band members just found a intriguing name for an all-male band. In the same year they started working on their first demo with the songs ‘Joan’, ‘l'Univers és una festa’, ‘Rumba’ and ‘Es xifon és un aparato’ and played their first concert in Bunyola. The demo and concert led to their self-titled debut in 1999 under the production of Tomeu Janer. Critics characterized their music by its festive folk like tone and fantastic lyrics. Recurring themes were subjects like space, astronomy, space and robotics.

Two years later, in 2001, they presented their second disc ‘A Rússia’ followed in 2002 by already their third album ‘Allegria’. In this stage Antònia Font is considered “Catalan band of the year” by Radio 4 and receives an award for “best album” at the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic. The sound of the group seems to get more cultivated with each record. This gets even more obvious when the band starts to incorporate and adding audiovisual presentations into their stageshow and musical output. On ‘Taxi’, the fourth album, the album comes with a DVD and a textbook attached. Central theme is an invented outer space world. This theme doesn’t return on ‘Batiscafo Katiuscas’ (2005) which seems to be an inner journey in which loneliness and melancholy are very much present.

In 2007 they undertake the project ‘Coser i cantar’, recorded with the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra, with arrangements of contemporary composer Michelangelo Aguiló. The album is a reinterpretation from tracks of their former albums. In 2008 they receive the Premio Nacional de Música de Catalunya. Joan Miquel Oliver also released solo albums, wrote poetry and a novel and composed for other groups. 2011 sees the release of an album with new material called 'Lamparetes'. Only one year later they present the concept album 'Vostè és aqui' with 40 new songs embedded in a travel over three imagenary public transport lines.

On the web:

- Antònia Font's' website: http://www.antoniafontoficial.com/

If you like this, you probably like... / european counterparts:

Ivano Fossati (Italy)

What do we think:

DB: I heard Antònia Font first on a Midem sampler for Spanish Independents. Reminding me somehow of the epic feel of Franco Battiato's rock songs i started looking for the album (which was Batsicafo Katiuscas). This turned out to be not so easy since their music is hardly available through import. In the end i asked a niece who lives in Barcelona to buy the album for me. Her Spanish boyfriend at the time didn't get the lyrics though mainly due to the fact that the band sings in Catelan dialect. Listening to their music the band has a sort of prog-rock folky feel to their music. Very nice, stylish and intelligent. But don't expect any extremes or medi terrenaen grandeur.

Recommended albums:

- Antònia Font – 1999

- A Rússia - 2001

♪♪♪ - Alegria - 2002

♪♪♪ - Taxi - 2004

♪♪♪♪♪ - Batiscafo Katiuscas - 2006

♪♪♪ - Coser i Cantar - 2007

♪♪♪♪ - Lamparetes - 2011

♪♪♪♪ - Vostè és aqui - 2012

Solo albums by Joan Miquel Oliver:

Droguería Esperança - Odissea 30 000 - 2002
Surfistes en càmera lenta - 2005

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♪♪♪♪♪= outstanding album, an absolute must-have
♪♪♪♪ = great album, highly recomended
♪♪♪ = nice album
♪♪ = be careful, requires listening before buying
♪ = best to be avoided