Jansky's Electroverse

Photograph by Valentin Kokorin

Two weeks ago, I had my first ever ‘Electroverse’ experience. I doubt that many, if any, of my classmates knew exactly what to expect when we were invited to take part in a music workshop and attend the same band’s concert the following night. All we were told was that we would be introduced to a new musical genre created by Catalan poet Laia Malo and Mallorcan record producer Jaume Reus, who together form the Catalan-speaking duo Jansky.

They named themselves after the American physicist Karl Guthe Jansky: the first person to discover radio waves emanating from the Milky Way. Working with the concept of being able to ‘hear’ the planets and stars, the Jansky duo have created an intense, transcendental style of music that is clearly tied to these origins. By combining Reus’ electronica and occasional flute solos with Malo’s poems, they managed to invent something completely original. Yes, when I first discovered what it was, it all sounded slightly peculiar to me too. I mean, synthesisers, flute accompaniments, and poetry readings? Surely this couldn’t work. Well, I can now say that I was pleasantly surprised by the results.

The whole experience comprised a workshop with the band in the DSU’s Kingsgate Bar on a Thursday afternoon, followed by a live concert in central Newcastle on Friday evening.

Photographs by Francina Payeras

I arrived at the workshop in good time, so I savoured the opportunity to practise speaking Catalan during the setup. While Jaume Reus was plugging in and testing out what seemed like an infinite number of cables, speakers, keyboards, and DJ sets, Laia Malo was at the workshop tables covered in electronic music gear and flanked by two enormous speakers, ready to begin. Then we spotted a flute – what exactly had we got ourselves into? Whatever it was, we were clearly in for an action-packed afternoon.

After some brief introductions, Laia Malo, speaking exclusively in Catalan, asked us to pick out a specific word from a selection of Catalan poetry she had prepared beforehand. We were then asked to speak the word into a microphone with as much gusto as we had, at which point it was recorded. Then, having synced each of our individual words to an individual key on a keyboard, they turned on the music. Deafening beats erupted from the speakers, and we then spent a quarter of an hour playing our spoken words over their electronic tracks. While ten musically impaired students giggling over a microphone and sporadically pressing buttons is always going to be a barrel of laughs, the entertaining, albeit abstract workshop still provided only a glimpse of what was to come the next day.

On Friday night, we headed to the Kommunity Bar and Cultural Centre in Newcastle. After a few beers, we listened to a truly beautiful, monstrous, deafening hour of music. Listening to their songs, you are constantly shifting between different emotions. The diversity of the sounds they produced during their hour-long set was unprecedented. Just when you think you have come to terms with Catalan poetry recited over a bass line, the sound of a flute on top of it all adds a mystical, raw feeling to such a technological style of music. The only constant during that hour was the feeling of being simply overwhelmed. Some people found peace in the chaos and had completely given way to the experience, dancing and swaying to the beat. Others looked around questioningly at the audience, trying to break through. It was an incredibly individual experience, unique for every person listening.

After the event, we floated out of the venue and slowly made our way back to Durham. Nobody was entirely sure how to define what we had just experienced. What we all agreed on, however, was that we had been simultaneously moved, scared, and trapped in a musical realm we hadn’t been to before, in a place that we were all, nevertheless, eager to dive right back into.

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​Written by
​Alex Jones