Izal passed (for the moment) to a better life, but its leader Mikel Izal has shown, with his first solo album, to be a particularly restless mind and reluctant to stagnation, transcending the Spanish indie scene. He coincides tonight with the young musician and producer Pau Corea, author of one of the best electronic pop albums of 2023.
Neither the indie pop español of the last decade nor its festival scene would be understood without Izal, the project that for more than a decade led from Vitoria by the composer and vocalist Mikel Izal. They were headliners of almost all the most multitudinous musical events in our country. A sure value. But as the Basque musician does not like to settle in and live on rents, he decided a year and a half ago to park the band he formed with Alejandro Jordá, Emanuel Pérez "Gato", Alberto Pérez and Iván Mella to embark on a new journey. And when we say "new" is because it really is, although its name does not hint at it: "El miedo y el paraíso" (2023), his first solo album, leaves aside the guitars and gives priority to synthesizers and electric drums, evoking the textures of the records of Bon Iver, James Blake or Jack Garratt, treading a little frequented terrain in Spain. His live show is already giving us the same efficiency to which his former band had us accustomed to.
Valencian musician and producer Pau Corea released in 2023 one of the great Spanish electronic pop albums. The also drummer - at the time - of bands like Twelve Dolls or Modelo de Respuesta Polar, drew on the influence of r'n'b, the pianistic minimalism of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds or Debussy and the digital romanticism of James Blake, Four Tet or Oneohtrix Point Never in the homonymous and self-released "Pau Corea" (2023). A splendid work that should bring him international projection.
