Biography
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Years Active
2002 – present (22 years)
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Founded In
Terrassa, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain
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Members
- ZA! & la TransMegaCobla
For the female singer-songwriter ZA (Elsa Kopf), please go to www.last.fm/music/+noredirect/ZA and vote for the correct spelling of her name to avoid the redirect here.
Za! is a travelling circus from Barcelona. Two guys and a dozen instruments. Za! are: PAPA DUPAU (guitar, trumpet, kalimba, percussions, vocals) and SPAZZFRICA EHD (drums, percussions, keys, effects, clarinet, vocals). This multilayer supersonic-orchestra combines African beats, noise, math rock, vocal-loops, free jazz, analogue electronics, sounds from the Shepherds of Tuva, Balinese polyrhythms, Mauritanian trip hop, Dadaism, distortion, dance and drones. POST-WORLD MUSIC may be the label for this danceable hybrid.
Megaflow is Za!’s new album, the product an intense and exhilarating year in their lives. The result, recorded by Santi García and mastered by Jeff Lipton (Battles, Arcade Fire, Lightning Bolt), and co-edited internationally by Acuarela, Gandula and German label Discorporate (on vinyl), is even more risky than their acclaimed Macumba o Muerte but also strangely uplifting and bright.
An amazing album with an amazing artwork (each song has a miniature landscape as a map). A whirlwind of colours. Virtuosic euphoria. Living intuition. Musical explosion. Coltrane, Africa, Asia, Fugazi, Tortoise, Ruins, Stravinsky, Battles… sequenced improvisation, the recreation of an Arab market, guitar solos from Purgatory or the superposition of a hundred voices screaming at unison. 46 minutes that make you dizzy at its first hearing, where experimental music is sung in hooligan mode, the noise has chorus, and world music is played with distortions and through amplifiers.
Za! have played international festivals (Primavera Sound, Sonar), art performances, tours in the U.K., U.S., Spain, Portugal and Germany. They have toured with noise bands (Lightning Bolt, ZU, Yellow Swans), alternative rock acts (El Guincho, Delorean) and free-jazz artists (Peter Brötzmann, Paal Nilssen Love). Megaflow premieres with invitations to some of the best festivals around the world (South by Southwest in Austin, Fusion Festival in Germany, Gwen Festival in Switzerland), a U.S. tour, an opening of an exhibition by Joan Miró, and other events with ‘FLOW’.
Za! is:
Ed Spafrika: drums, voice, keyboard
Pa padopau: guitar, trumpet, kalimba, voice
Buggamaistah: traveler around the world
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