Mazoni returns to euphoria in Vic

Vic"I'm getting excited!" said Jaume Pla, Mazoni, on Wednesday night in Vic. He had just played Fe dins la tristesa, one of the songs of album Banderes per daltònics (2025) which begins to roll live. Although there was no trumpet that illuminates it on the album, the song sounded full, driven by the energy of the electric quartet format. "It's great that you receive a new song like this," he had said a little while before after Quant temps fa que no plores, satisfied with the applause of the audience who did not want to miss this presentation in the tent of the Mercat de Música Viva in Vic.

We can put it another way: the almost two-year hiatus has been beneficial. Mazoni returns with a vengeance and a handful of quite remarkable new songs, seemingly simple, transparent in their influences (from The Beatles and The Kinks to Neil Young and Bob Dylan) and perfectly comparable to the best of the Bisbal d'Empordà musician's repertoire. For example, the new Set de nou It links very well with Purgatory(from 2013), and the punk-rock ferocity of another new release, Putes xarxes socials, gives way naturally to the postpunk of Euphoria (from 2009), a song, by the way, that he dedicated to guitarist Jordi Rudé, a collaborator who passed away in 2023. "Now he would have turned 48. And the other day I was thinking: what a well-made guitar Jordi played on this song," he said. The euphoria had been transmitting from the stage for a while and Jaume Pla demonstrated it by approaching the audience, climbing on the monitor, inciting them to sing the chorus of AILODIU ("T'odio amb tot el cor") and, in the encore, displaying the proletarian rage of Paula's farm, the adaptation of Maggie's farm by Bob Dylan, which has been part of Mazoni's songbook for almost twenty years. Fifty minutes well spent, they bode well for a successful tour. "Happiness is not enough, we demand euphoria," a call worthy of May Day, could also be the leitmotif of Mazoni's new era.

The impact of Rocío Márquez

The opening concert of the 37th Vic Live Music Market was led by singer Rocío Márquez, who premiered the album show Vertical anthem (2025) with guitarist Pedro Rojas Ogáyar, an essential accomplice in a memorable adventure: only voice and guitar (Spanish and electric), some loop, a fabric that served as a curtain as well as a cape and dress, and an interplay of darkness and light that alternates the requiem for a family loss with the joy of remembrance. The Andalusian artist has created a musical monument, a perfect synthesis of her profound knowledge of flamenco ritual and technique and the need to live by exploring all the expressive possibilities of the voice (a need to live in the voice that Rosalía and Maria Arnal share, but that Rocío Márquez takes to another level, modulating it like a tightrope walker).

This spirit was already in the album The child (2014), which already included respectful tears from the flamenco canon, and exploded in Third heaven (2022), the joint work with Bronquio of electronic nature. Vertical anthem It's the consequence of all this, and Rocío Márquez defends it with a radical voice, both rooted and daring, surfing the metrics of seguiriya and tango, singing from the home of pain and from the attic of dreams, tuning into impossible territories and challenging the guitar like a hardcore singer would. The show is thrilling, and the audience at Atlántida rewarded him with a standing ovation. Don't miss it: September 23rd in front of Barcelona Cathedral and April 19th of next year at the Girona Auditorium.