"I document fires because I live in a place where there are fires," says Galician photographer Brais Lorenzo, awarded in the 2026 edition of the World Press Photo inthe graphic reportage category for the Europe region. In Lorenzo's words, there is resignation and rage. "I have been documenting them for fifteen years, and their destructive capacity increases every time," he adds, aware of the structural nature of forest fires, caused by the climate emergency but also by the progressive abandonment of rural human ecosystems. "It pains me to document what happens every year in my land," he laments.

A change of course for Sónar, which is abandoning the 2026 format to return to the traditional one. That is, in 2027, instead of gathering all the daytime and nighttime programming in a single space, the Gran Via 2 exhibition center in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, the festival returns to organizing a Sónar by Day and a Sónar by Night in two different locations. The night will continue at the Fira, a fixed venue since 2001, and the daytime activity, including that of Sónar+D, will take place "on the seafront of central Barcelona", as explained by the festival directed by François Jozic, who does not specify the location. Everything suggests, however, that the new venue will be the sheds at the Port Vell, which were renovated for the America's Cup and have already hosted events such as the fashion shows of 080 Barcelona Fashion.

Mystery and sensitivity coexist in the compositions of Mar Pujol (Prats de Lluçanès, 1999), folk of guitar and cello played with hands full of moss and fog. Two years after the notable Cançons de rebost (2024), she releases D'aquesta aigua no en beuré (Hidden Track, 2026), a candidate to appear in the lists of the best albums of the year. Mar Pujol, a kind of Vashti Bunyan of the Lluçanès, premiered the new songs in September at the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic, and is now starting to tour them everywhere accompanied by Bruna González.

"To live and not be ashamed of being happy" could be Jorge Drexler's motto. It is a verse from ¿Qué será que es?, the Spanish version of the track by Brazilian artist Gonzaguinha that the Uruguayan musician played in the final stretch of Saturday's concert at the Palau Sant Jordi. A generous concert, lasting two and a half hours, with a remarkable rhythmic and scenic display, presided over by the charisma of an artist who was capable of conveying proximity – intimacy, in fact – in the vastness of the venue. He has the gift of the anecdote and the favor of an audience that celebrates his stand-up comedy skills, as he demonstrated all alone at the Palau de la Música in 2025. And despite the astonishment at the hostility that characterizes the present, he pursues happiness with the determination of a Quixote and a delicate irony hanging from his smile. Also attached to the melancholy of the milonga, he sometimes verges on an overdose of consonant rhyme, as happens in Cuando cantaba Morente with "candente", "inclemente" and "latente" (almost all poets have a bad day), but the consistency of his songbook and the communicative capacity of a voice that takes on harmonic challenges without virtuosity is undeniable.

Antoni Vila Casas (1930-2023) chose three songs that were to be played when the foundation bearing his name turned 40: Mi amante amigo, one of the compositions by Manuel Alejandro that was popularized by Rocío Jurado; Cançó per a Joan Salvat-Papasseit, by Joan Manuel Serrat; and the Virolai, by Jacint Verdaguer and Josep Rodoreda. All three were performed by the singer Myriam Swanson, the guitarist David Soler, and the accordionist Edurne Arizu on Thursday at the Can Framis Museum, the jewel in the crown of Vila Casas, the patron of contemporary art, the man who "created a pharmaceutical industry from a pharmacy; and from a small art collection, a cultural institution for the country", as stated by Montse Viladomiu, vice-president of the Vila Casas Foundation and head of the Health Area.

We must begin by debunking the protagonist. "It will be a night of nostalgia and guests," said Jaume Pla, Mazoni, before starting the 20th anniversary concert of the album Esgarrapada (2026). There were indeed guests, but not a shred of nostalgia. Furthermore, there are things that do not need the validation of nostalgia. Therefore, there was no self-indulgence in a vibrant performance that served as a confirmation of the virtues of the repertoire of Mazoni's first album in Catalan. These are ten songs (plus the version of Cançó 7a en colors, by Pau Riba) that go beyond generational impact because they are made with material that does not fade with the passage of time. They keep their gaze on the present, also due to how Mazoni interprets them with the band from the tour of the album Banderes per daltònics (2025) and above all for the guests he chose, some of the most relevant in current Catalan music, everyone connected with those electric and poetic scratches.

Tilda Swinton directing a search for Marianne Faithfull. Albert Serra filming an Ingrid Caven concert the way live music is no longer filmed. A journey to the end of the nights where Flying free was playing. Remei de Ca la Fresca standing up to the companies draining the aquifers of Montseny. An intimate short film about Jordi Savall. Tour chronicles of Fermin Muguruza and Pulp. Three Norwegian witches reclaiming the fog of black metal. A flamenco taste by Carla Simón. These are just some of the things that will happen in the 24th edition of In-Edit, the music documentary film festival that will be held at the Mooby Aribau Cinema from October 29 to November 8. In total, 70 documentaries will be screened, from which we have made a selection. This is the recommendation from ARA.

Santiago Auserón (Zaragoza, 1954) picks up the phone in Athens. He is rehearsing there with Greek musicians Vaggelis Tzeretas and Thodoris Karellas the repertoire for concerts like the one he will perform this Friday, October 23rd, at the Casino l'Aliança del Poblenou (9 PM), in Barcelona, as part of the Cruïlla Concerts. With them, he recorded the album Nerantzi (La Huella Sonora, 2025). It is Auserón's journey to the East, adapting to Spanish the shining eyes of rebetiko, one of the most unique manifestations of Greek popular music.

Sergei Dovlatov (Ufa, 1941—New York, 1990) is "the writer who best knew how to read his era", said Svetlana Alexievich, 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature. Perhaps she was convinced by reflections like those he scattered in the 94 columns he wrote for the weekly The New American between 1980 and 1982 and which LaBreu Edicions now collects under the title The Column, with a translation from Russian to English by Miquel Cabal Guarro. Alexievich explained it to Cabal, who completely agrees. After all, he has translated a dozen of Dovlatov's books for LaBreu and deeply knows the legacy of the Russian author. By the way, both the translator and the publisher deserve the highest recognition for constant work that allows us to read in our language one of the great writers of the second half of the 20th century, a humanist in the most prosaic sense: concerned with social welfare, critical of totalitarianism and disappointed with empty gestures and those disgruntled people incapable of making constructive proposals. "We do not consider the alternative to love to be hostility. Not even indifference. But lies. Consequently, the alternative to hatred is truth", this activist of a "spontaneous humanism" said bluntly.

There are exciting shows that grow with every moment. And then there is Terra de guapes, by the Valencian singer Sandra Monfort. There are tributes made with judgment and sensitivity. And then there is the offering to the Valencian people that on Thursday inaugurated the 29th edition of the Fira Mediterrània in Manresa. There are enthusiastic ovations. And then there is the burst of joy and gratitude with which the audience filling the Teatre Kursaal rewarded a show born from the pain and rage caused by the 2024 DANA and by political infamy, but also from the love for all the people who, with rubber boots and broom in hand, restored dignity to a people who were meant to be "buried in mud, metaphorically and literally," as Monfort recalled.

It was difficult to contain the rage after so many deaths and so much political irresponsibility on October 29, 2024. It had only been two weeks since the DANA that mainly affected the Valencian Horta Sud, and the Valencian singer Sandra Monfort (Pedreguer, 1992) found the right words to express the unrest and celebrate solidarity. "And we will sing for you and we will clamor for justice! Today, while the starlings migrate and radishes grow in the field, the people rise up clutching shovels and street brooms," said the 'Som València' manifesto written by Monfort.

"It is a project that talks about our prehistory, when before being Estopa we were David and José", the Muñoz brothers explained this Tuesday at the Aula Magna of the Faculty of Geography and History of the University of Barcelona, where David is studying the second year of history. The project in question is a double album that recovers the thirty songs they recorded with two guitars and vocals in the years 1996 and 1997, before releasing their first album with Sony. It is what is known as La maketa and which until now circulated illegally on the internet. "These are recordings that were not registered; therefore, we were not paid. I regret being so materialistic", say the Muñoz brothers.

The 39th season of the Fundació Òpera Catalunya begins on October 14th with a new production of L'elisir d'amore, by Donizetti (1797-1848). The premiere will be at the Teatre la Faràndula in Sabadell (8 p.m.), and until November 13th, fourteen performances will be held in Viladecans, Barcelona, Granollers, Vic, Cornellà de Llobregat, Figueres, Tarragona, Lleida, Manresa, and Sant Cugat del Vallès. This new production features stage direction by Pau Monterde, who resets the action in a southern Italian village in the 1950s. In the pit will be the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès, conducted by Daniel Gil de Tejada, and the Cor Amics de l'Òpera de Sabadell will also participate.

The headline quote is said by trombonist Rita Payés (Vilassar de Mar, 1999) about pianist Lucía Fumero (Barcelona, 1991), who also subscribes to it. The musical and personal symbiosis between the two has this effect and, furthermore, multiplies the artistic and emotional impact of songs like those that make up the joint album Rueda eterna (2026), jazz, Latin American song, and Brazilian rhythmic aromas that they will spread on a European tour starting on October 14th in Paris.

"An important emotion, because it had been 51 years since I last performed there," explained Maria del Mar Bonet after Sunday's concert at the Olympia in Paris, the French temple of song. In statements collected by the ACN, the Majorcan singer highlighted that seeing the full hall "was beautiful" and thanked the audience for being so "sensitive and participative." "And very warm, and that makes you give your all. I had a great time, and furthermore, the musicians were very dedicated," added Bonet.

"It is one more step in the internationalization of the Orfeó Català," said Joaquim Uriach, president of the Orfeó Català Association and the Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música Catalana Foundation, on Saturday. The phrase, reported by the ACN, came in light of the New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Gustavo Dudamel that was held at the Philharmonie de Paris and in which the Orfeó Català, the Girls' Choir, and singers from the Children's Choir participated. It is the first of a tour that this Monday will pass through L'Auditori in Barcelona, to inaugurate the BCN Clàssics season, and which will then continue to the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid (October 13), the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg (October 19), and the Musikverein in Vienna (October 22).

Anne Carson, the 2026 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature, commented regarding a Rosalía concert in Chicago that upon leaving the performance there was no shared euphoria among the audience. "Each person sinks into their own dream while adjusting their headphones," the Canadian poet wrote, noting the more introspective nature of the material on the album Lux, or perhaps Rosalía's overwhelming ability to leave one speechless. Individual experience prevailed, therefore, as legitimate as what was lived during the four farewell concerts of Oques Grasses at the Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium, where the weight of the collective (and in many cases family) experience lived over two hours soaked the journey home for the 55,000 spectators (220,000 in total for the farewell). Down from Montjuïc there may not have been the euphoria that Anne Carson was looking for, but there was a shared joy, despite the inevitable pinch of melancholy because there will be no more opportunities to see and experience an Oques Grasses concert.

The creation of the National Theatre of Catalonia Company is one of the projects that will be promoted by the new artistic director of the TNC, Josep Maria Mestres. "It is a project that I am particularly excited about," said Mestres during the presentation of the main lines he wants to implement at the facility starting from the 2027-2028 season, which will be the first he will direct completely after taking over from Carme Portaceli. The company will consist of twelve professional performers under 35 years of age: six actresses and six actors, selected in an open audition process. Only in shows that require it will there also be external collaborators of various ages. Each cohort will last for two seasons and, during this time, the performers will be hired on a stable basis.

A sound artistic duo, a writer, a publishing house, a stage director, a musician, an actor, and a playwright are the winners of the 2026 National Culture Awards, the accolades that have been presented since 2009 by the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CoNCA). The winners are Cabosanroque, Pol Guasch, Jande Editorial, Àlex Ollé, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, Oriol Pla, and Victoria Szpunberg, as announced this Friday at an event held at the Pau Casals Auditorium in El Vendrell, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of Pau Casals. The ceremony was hosted by journalist Andrea Gumes and was attended by the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, the Minister of Culture, Sònia Hernández Almodóvar, and the President of the CoNCA, Margarida Troguet. Each award comes with a prize of 20,000 euros, and starting this year, there are no longer five winners, but seven. In their acceptance speeches, the winners agreed on championing culture, collective values, and public services as tools to confront reactionary forces.

The government of Aragon has authorized the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC) to transfer the profane paintings of Sixena to the monastery. In July the MNAC halted the dismantling of the works because it still did not have the approval of the Huesca Heritage Commission, which approved it this Friday.