Catalan sounds to be received in Barcelona in 2026

Barcelona"I felt the need to give the music more of an identity," explains Marc Parrot (Barcelona, ​​1967). In other words, I didn't want it to be an impersonal soundtrack or simply the sound of a place. With this in mind, he took on the commission to create the musical component of the New Year's Eve show with which Barcelona will bid farewell to 2025 and welcome 2026 on Avenida de la Reina María Cristina, between 11:50 p.m. on Wednesday, December 31st, and 12:10 a.m. on Thursday. "The proposal from ICUB [the Barcelona Institute of Culture] was quite open: I had to provide the music, and the French company Groupe F would handle the pyrotechnics and drones. I immediately thought about giving it character with Catalan sounds, while also making it universal," explains Parrot, who chose the four elements—air, water, and fire—as his conceptual thread.

Marc Parrot has created the music expressly for a show that begins with "a more spiritual part," the one corresponding to the air. He imagines dreams and birds, and uses "the highest-pitched instruments of the copla, especially the piccolo, but also the tibles and the tenora." Next, he enters the water, "the richness that has come to us from the sea thanks to trade, culture, and cultural exchange." He delves into it with the colors of the habanera and the rumba. "And then we move to the land, which is when the rhythm, the percussion, the double bass, and the sardana come in," he says. All of this with details of "very discreet" analog electronics. It is a sum of elements and sounds. increscendo which makes the garment "grow" before the culmination at midnight. "And right after the chimes is the moment of celebration, of fire, which I associate with the world of devils, castellers, and giant dances. This part is like a session where traditional music dialogues with electronic music, taking journeys between the past and the future. It's a very danceable and festive part," Parrot explains. To avoid the music and pyrotechnics being a clash of styles, Parrot and Groupe F have shared information in several meetings. "There has been coordination. It's conceived as a spectacle," says the musician.

The new year arrives as Parrot is finishing an album with the Quartet Brossa, which will be released at the end of February and presented at L'Auditori in Barcelona on March 26, as part of the Barnasants festival program. A preview is already available to listen to. Links, a song that originated from a poem by Joan Vinyoli. Another new release in 2026 will be the soundtrack for Jasmine & JamboThe animated film, directed by Sílvia Cortés and featuring the voices of Anna Moliner and Tomeu Penya, was released by Parrot. Parrot had previously worked on the music for the series about the same characters, "a series that has done very well everywhere." Since its release in early 2024 the album Tourism through memory, Marc Parrot has worked on other soundtracks: that of the film Centaurs of the Night (2024), by Marc Recha, and that of The van (2025), by Eloy Calvo.