TARASCA

TARASCA ON THE TRAIL OF TIME

When the sea hardens life and hope is sown on land, the survival of the human being emerges with honesty and dedication. Humble men and women take care of their daily livelihood with care, so that the generosity and fertility of nature lasts over time as an inheritance for future generations.

The hands of men and women weave between their fingers a story, a wicker and rope bridge, and cane…, and memory. These hands were the source of many joys, creators of ideas, creators of wonderful crafts.

With them they modelled life and clay, made wood carvings… With them they forged iron, sewed wounds, nets and roses, worked leather and stone. With their hands they obtained food from the sea; fish and salt. With them they scattered seeds and watered and plowed the dry land. Clasping their hands, they begged for water… And they honored the earth with their sweat, raising the harvest together. The hands of the men and women of the Canary Islands are creative hands, they make yesterday tomorrow and tomorrow now.

The Pieles Company is seen as an avant-garde proposal based on the folklore of the Canary Islands, and is also nourished by traditional manifestations from the rest of the world. It is an innovative project of ethnographic and anthropological value that brings together the different cultures of the planet to give rise to a plural, distinctly Canarian yet universal song.

That whole passage of Time was captured tonight in this atmospheric amphitheatre, carved out the rock and cliff faces of its natural surroundings. The modernistic details of acoustic, illumination, and spaced and safe seating for the audience, with manageable entrance and egress was not only all part of Manrique´s vision but was also overseen by him in every details with an river-arching compassion for those who perform here and applaud here that was matched only his concern for the environment of rocks and sea. It is among the most magnificent few theatres in the world and is part of the C.A.,C.T. tourist offer that may become increasingly important as the nature of holidaying and the tropes of tourism, with re-set minds post covid of  wshat it means to be humand and what we as a species want to achieve.

We at Sidetracks And Detours have been fortunate enough to have been given a guided tour of Jameos Del Agua with a special diversion to see the incredible stage area and to look out for the first time from there into the vastness of the theatre is a heart stopping moment.

And, although videos and You Tube enticements had been employed as teasers for this concert it was another heart-stopping moment when a recorded voice announced, Ladies and Gentlemen, Tarasca,…

Tarasca played their first notes, and immediately transported us to another place, another time, as set us off on a journey through Time from a stage set that was incredibly shadowed in only subdued lighting.

It felt immediatelyas if were in a cave-home with a large family in times before Humankind  began to form identified families in their own homes, self sufficient from their own organised working day that grew from hunter gatherer models.

The glorious vocals from the twelve artists and their music played on ancient instruments and everydaty items like bowls and barrels took us on a journey towards modern times. Playing on the rims and the body of kitchen barrels, and the ebb and flow of water as floors were washed and and swept.

The music called to mind The Incredible String Band or Jethro Tull of the Heavy Horses era.

We could identify the sound of seeds being sifted and sown, the first flickerings of the discovery of of fire. We could hear percussion dancing on the ceiling and bouncing of the walls, and yet the ensemble could play quietly in a pin drop silence and not mis-place a note.

This was one of the many concert we have seen here over the past seven years and always struggle to find the words that might describe it.

calm, thoughtful, thought-provoking, elegant, dignified, and that´´s about it really.

Oh, but it took us through hundreds of thousands of years from cold caves to central heating, from agriculture to industry to fishing to society and civilisation.

It told the story oif Time in a timeless fashion