The Third Ibiza International Music Summit (IMS) came round as ever to coincide with the first big summer opening parties in the beach bars and clubs. The respectably later starts to each day’s panels were really most welcome given the heat and the palpably more laid back and confident vibe of this year’s event. Once again, the Gran Hotel in the marina was the mothership for the daytime events, with evening sessions at Grial and Pacha, and the grand finale event on full moon up in Dalt Vila.

For me the act that will feel the most pressure is the one who carries the week’s finale gig through sunset and into the rising full moon night and weekend, effectively warming up the medieval ramparts for the summer season. This year the job went to Mark Ronson who, just before heading up to Dalt Vila to face his music, was increasingly feeling the heat. We managed to grab a few minutes alone with Mark after his keynote interview with Pete Tong. Mark was somewhat panicky so we tried to reassure him all would be ok. After all , we told him, he would be playing not only to relaxing IMS delegates but also to quite a lot of local music lovers, many of whom would be coming up specifically to see him. Whoops… Head in hands, his trademark frown appeared. He seemed like a rabbit in the headlights. It was sweet. He was taking his role really seriously.

You just keep heaping on these fucking expectations. Everyone keeps saying ‘are you ready for Dalt Vila?’ and I’m like ‘Fuck!! I don’t know…it is a really big deal to play there, and its such a brilliant location and especially as the sun’s going down.

It is a brilliant location. I point out that it’s probably the perfect place to play a whole new set, because here the crowd will know the difference; and because it’s sunset *and* full moon it will all be really intense up there in the ancient fortress. The words ‘full moon’ though set him off again.

Why do you keep saying these things?  I feel like I’m going in-fucking-SANE. To be totally honest when my last record Version came out I had a set that I knew would always kill it, but because the new record’s only just finished I haven’t quite worked out that set, and I don’t want to play the Version set because that’s stale now. I think I’ll just improvise and hopefully it’ll be ok. I just didn’t realise it was such a big deal, this gig.  That’s amazing though.  It’s really nice to play to a familiar sort of crowd, but it is also about turning other people on. You know, the English people here they know me, so there’s a comfort level there. They can come hear me having probably heard me play before, and it’s exciting to play for the kids too, and for people that are going to maybe hear your thing for the first time and, hopefully, like it.

He’s been here before. Indeed he headlined at Ibiza Rocks a couple of years back. He has his own style, reflected in his excellent sartorials, his warm and endearing relationship to everything he touches on and his music tastes, which say total street dude one minute, and great big softie the next. Now he’s weighing up where to set the dial for tonight’s crowd.

Each crowd in each place is like its own little enclave, that’s the thing. I’ve played Pacha on a Friday night where its super-Euro, like Italians coming in to hear your music and trying to figure it out. Then you can play in Eden or something in San Antonio, where it’s like playing Manchester, and that’s nice too. This is the mecca of dance music. People really come here to have a great time unless you really fuck that up for them.

One of the things Ronson has said in his audience interview with Pete Tong earlier that had caught my interest was how much he loved Duran Duran. So much so that in 2008 he re-worked the band’s catalogue with them, live at La Cigale in Paris at a one-off gig. I asked him where this had come from?

From when I was a kid. I can’t remember what the first Duran Duran track I discovered was but I definitely remember loving The Union of the Snake, and Seven and the Ragged Tiger. That was one of the first CDs that I ever owned in fact. Then The Reflex. When I was nine, with the very first band that I was ever in at school, we played at the school talent show. We played Wild Boys and it was a fucking catastrophe. We only rehearsed once. We just thought it’d be cool, ‘oh we’ll just plug in electric guitars and perform, and it doesn’t matter’.  We got the biggest screaming at from our teacher, she said ‘you were an insult to everybody!’ But the Duran thing is kind of amazing. To be able to get to a situation where you’re making a band sound like music that you loved when you were a kid, to get them to revisit and reclaim what they did so well.
Ronson’s production credits include Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black, Ghostface Killah’s More Fish, Kaiser Chief’s Off With Their Heads, Lily Allen’s Alright, Still, Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s Osirus and Robbie Williams’ Rudebox.  So I’m sure a few producers feature in his hero list.

Well yeah, and today I’m way more knowledgable because you get to study all the records and you get behind the people that you love. I definitely looked up to Phil Spector, but I really really loved Rick Rubin back then, because when you’re a kid and looking at someone that iconic…I mean he could be in a children’s book, like Where’s Waldo because he’s just so interesting.  I loved the Beastie Boys, The Black Crowes, Slayer. LL Cool J. And then I loved hiphop, Dre and DJ Premier who was definitely my favourite producer. Pete Rock. I mean they’re all amazing.

I had my own studio for a little while too, but I was on the road so much it just didn’t make sense me paying like crazy New York rent so I gave it up. The studio where I recorded my new album is a friend’s place in Williamsburg in Brooklyn. We kind of just set up shop there for six months. It was the first time I worked there but it did become my favourite because it’s got an amazing vibe. He just made it himself and you can tell it was made with love. It was like somewhere that The Band might have recorded at in 1972.  It actually looked to me like old footage of The Band in Woodstock, it’s got that kind of vibe to it.  I mix in London with an engineer called Tom Elmhirst. Someone recommended him for the Amy Winehouse record and since then I pretty much go to him.

Calmer now, I think, I ask him what he would do if it were the end of the world. He’s going to go one of two ways – the craziest party ever, with him performing at his favourite world nightspot or…He opts for the ‘or’ scenario.

Easy. I’d wanna be with my girlfriend. I don’t even know if I’d want to perform. I’d just feel like staying in and snuggling for the last 12 hours or whatever. Probably watch Arrested Development or Curb Your Enthusiasm and try and get my mind off the fact the world’s going to end…

Two hours later, after he’s been spotted backstage up in Dalt Vila by our cameraman intensely finishing off his set preparation, he delivers a magnificently eclectic and heartfelt set to the appreciative lunar congregation and by the end he is having a thoroughly good time.  “Thank you so much! This has been totally fucking awesome!” he tells the crowd, and closes out with a new track featuring Boy George before he lets Sasha take over for the late set.

by Helen Donlon and Frank Fabian

First off, many thanks to Mark Jones for the Wall of Sound party at Grial last night which kept everyone up all night, in a really friendly atmosphere with excellent music.

The quote of the day, “Women are the best. They are superior and the sooner we admit it, the better off we’ll be” comes from French super DJ and producer David Guetta. Ben Turner’s interview with Guetta at lunchtime was the popular event of the morning. His weekly summer residency, Fuck Me I’m Famous opens tonight at Pacha and we know that it was completely sold out well in advance. Despite this, Guetta remains grounded and realistic about the future. “I know I have like two good years as a top producer before the next new hot sound comes along.” That said, he’s been ahead of the game for several years, although he is not complacent about his superstardom. “It’s going so fast that we have to readapt every two months.”

We missed the bickering that took place on the superclub panel as we were busy interviewing various folks on camera around the hotel and capturing live footage of all sorts of interminglers, including the learned Dan Tait educating Busy P., Cassius and Luke Pompey on the latest Pioneer technology, launched exclusively at the IMS. Given that these French guys are at the pinnacle of electronic production, it was warming to see them so hooked by Tait’s gear.

This afternoon’s panel which consisted of Busy P. (Pedro Winter), Skream, Annie Mac, Heidi, Arthur Velasquez and Toddla T. was a free for all that quickly became performance art, due in very large part to both the caning of an entire bottle of Hierbas by the panelists, and the stratospheric personality of Busy P. “Why am I talking into a flower?” he asked in reference to the paper muffler or whatever had been placed over his mike. Business, he said is “all about putting your balls, and your life on the line”. The former manager of Daft Punk and owner of Ed Banger Records bantered enthusiastically with the other panelists who were spread across several genres and whose borders were acknowledged to be increasingly overlapping all across Europe. Now also the manager of Justice, Busy P. emphasised how important it is to him to give his artists complete freedom. Arthur Velasquez, who refused to be called a manager and accepted the tag ‘babysitter’ suggested for him by Heidi, was equally democratic “I work with people, not for them.” He said it was important for artists to go out and make their own mistakes in order to learn the ropes, whereas artists reliant on managers could potentially miss out on the intimacy between them and their audiences.

Later, Ted Cohen led an informal and very useful session in which he managed to confidently and comfortably bring the whole audience together for feedback on issues covered so far at this year’s summit.

Following an interview by Jason Bentley with Chop Shop’s Alexandra Patsavas on synchronisation and visualisation, the Ibiza Music Cluster was presented by the Consell Insular and featured award-winning Kirsty Keatch, a local singer songwriter; and an engaging talk by resident DJ Lenny Ibizarre.

Tonight’s entertainment comes in the form of a German Label Showcase at Grial, featuring Heidi, Jesse Rose and Sascha Dive; an Ibiza resident DJ night at Keeper with DJ Pippi, DJ Oliver, Java, Jose The End and Dave Storm; and of course the grand opening of…

Images – Hierbas Ibicencas, David Guetta and Ben Turner, Dan Tait/Luke Pompey/Philippe Zdar (Cassius)/Busy P., afternoon panel, Skream and Toddla T, Skream and Annie Mac, Fuck Me I’m Famous as the lights went on tonight. By Frank Fabian and Helen Donlon

Pete and Erick

With the temperatures noticeably higher than in the last two years, and attendance up by what looked like double, our IMS 2010 started some two hours later than planned which worked out perfectly as everyone there appeared to be working to the same schedule. Thankfully this meant we arrived just as Pete Tong began his talk with Erick Morillo for the first in the series of the BIG DOG DJ: FUCK YOU WE’RE FAMOUS interviews. This immediately set the tone for the day, as Morillo was on fire with optimism about the current state of dance music, and notably its present popularity in the US club scene.

“I feel like a little kid. I’m so excited about this industry again” he told the audience.  “I’m one of the luckiest guys in the world.” Having previously gone on record as saying he would definitely be retiring by the age of 35, Morillo, now about to turn 40, couldn’t have looked less retiring. “I’m really addicted to rocking the crowd. I don’t see me stopping this rhythm any time soon.”  About to embark on a new residency in Las Vegas, Morillo continues work with his labels Subliminal and the more underground Sondos, which he described as “darker, more 6am music.”

During a mellow lunchtime set from Phil Mison, we managed to catch up with Emma B for an on-camera chat. Emma now lives here fulltime and was busy interviewing for Sonica at the Summit.

With a prominent and exciting French presence at the IMS this year (not to mention this friday’s CLUB 75 party at Pacha), the next panel featured Cassius presenting this year’s IMS anthem. In typical fashion, they kept us waiting for the presentation while they tinkered around on their sequencing software in their hotel room upstairs, finally emerging with something resembling a nearly finished banger. One of the wonderful things about this year’s summit were the visuals accompanying every panel. In this one we got to see not just the recorded footage from their brainstorming recording session at the Paris studio, but also we watched on screen as they tweaked a few levels and soloed individual parts right before our eyes.

They made a point of emphasising the importance of collaboration, not only with each other but also between the digital and analog realms in music production. This friday’s CLUB 75 party at Pacha is one such collaboration between themselves, Justice, DJ Mehdi and other labelmates from Ed Banger records. The evening carries the motto “Backstage Onstage”, i.e. they’ll all be in the DJ box together.

Still with French talent on the agenda, next up was renowned music supervisor Jason Bentley in conversation with Pete Tong. Known for his incredible work on The Matrix, Jason is currently working on the forthcoming feature TRON for which he has called in the genius of Daft Punk. “Daft Punk are game changers”, he told us, “and they really nailed it.” The duo moved to Hollywood and utterly committed themselves to the two year project. Their involvement with the soundtrack commanded such a level of respect that they would actually play music on set during production. Bentley became very involved with them.  “Their studio is wild”, he told us, and he clearly enjoyed working with them. He regaled us with tales of searching for the perfect organ sound all over America. Eventually, after rejecting even Disneyland’s finest organ, the sound they were looking for was found right here in Europe.

The next panel, largely focusing on brands, threw up some interesting facts. Like the Germans apparently can’t access official music videos on youtube, due to the stringent efficiency of the deutsche PRS (or whatever the equivalent is).  The highlight of this panel for some though was the meta-event that occurred during a conversation about the benefits and risks of viral marketing, and instant feedback good or bad. As if on cue, a tweet appeared on the enormous screen that was streaming live IMS tweets with a message to the effect of “I am really bored here at the IMS, and sitting in the 2nd row with a red cap.”  Instant waves of suppressed laughter permeated the room, much to the bewilderment of the panel who sat with their backs to the screen, oblivious to the perfect irony of the situation.

The final panel of the day saw Ibiza heroes Steve Lawler and Andrea Pelino responding to questions from a curiously benighted chap from Resident Advisor. With years of phenomenal Ibiza party moments to both their names, Andrea and Steve were there to answer the question “how to conquer Ibiza and remain credible”, although the idea of “conquering” seemed oddly misplaced here on the island. Furthermore the two icons’ remarkably humble and sincere responses only served to underscore their impeccable reputations as bona fide pioneers of the Ibiza music scene.

More tomorrow, including our evening interview with Mike Pickering.  We’re off now to check out the Wall of Sound party at Grial.

Coverage: Helen Donlon/Frank Fabian

There are two ways of getting to Moon Beach, one of the northern coves on the island that’s great for swimming where no-one else is around, and which is also a real buzz location for children and dogs. One way that’s good for hikers is to cut through the woods from Benirras and continue north along the west coast for about 45 minutes. This is a fantastic hike, and is best done in very good walking shoes and when there hasn’t been any rain for a while. If you’re planning on walking back to Benirras afterwards though, make sure you leave Moon Beach well before sunset.

The other easier route is by car via Xarraca (instructions here), and walking down across the rocks after parking. The car parking spot (a tiny clearance really) is about a kilometre past the Xarraca turning. It’s worth doing a recce first before you plan to spend any proper time there though.

There are no signs for Moon Beach, one of my favourite spots in the still completely unspoilt northwest corners of the island, and I don’t even think that’s its real name, but who cares.

Moon Beach’s situation is just north of the Benirras bays and south of the Portinaitx ones. So you can also sail there if the boat is small enough, or take a dinghy or even swim in. Snorkelling in this part of the island is amazing.

The still relatively secret word-of-mouth parties that take place here from time to time are mainly made up of locals and long term Ibiza resident beachies from just about everywhere in the world. It’s the site of many of the old trance party gatherings in the eighties and nineties, and there are still vestiges of this scene in smaller form even today. Thankfully it has never crossed over with any of the more commercial parties, or advertised scenes on the island.

The charms of Moon Beach include the walk through the pine covered landscape, with limestone escarpments that are eroded and continually changing; and as with Punta Galera, in many ways a sister location to this northern gem, every season the geology that makes up the cliffs has shifted and fallen away, creating new spaces and craters on the lower level that runs straight into the Mediterranean. Given the aspect, sunsets here can be really special.

The beauty of visiting out of summer season is that you feel completely alone and lost in time, although the area is hardly any more crowded in summer, outside of the small full moon and other parties. There isn’t a shop, or even a chiringuito in sight, the nearest one probably being a couple of kilometres away at Cala Xarraca. Round the bay the 1958 film South Pacific was filmed. With all the charms to be found all over the island, especially in the beautiful April springtime, there’s still something extraordinary about this timeless spot, and the views around the bay to the north and west, full of the brightest blue, and the green, and more blue. Whenever the dogs get to spend the afternoon there they come back exhausted and happy. I recently read that dogs see blue and green more clearly than any other colour. Now I know why they get so excited as we pull off the road and head through the cliff pine forests…

March 17-21

Literary events for Ibiza’s Puerto Mediterráneo del Libro 2010

Wednesday 17th March

20h. Opening. Lurdes Costa, Mayoress of Ibiza. Es Polvorí

Presentation. Gabriel Torres Chalk, Director.

Inaugural lecture: Joan Margarit.

Cocktails.

* 

Thursday 18th march

11h. Opening of the exhibition Homage to Juan Carlos Onetti. Guests: Claudio Pérez Míguez, Raúl Manrique and Judith Lange.

Accompanied by a series of photographs, of the author; photos from his personal archive; first editions of his works; newspaper features; discs; original illustrations by the Argentinian artist Justo Barboza for La novia robada and a series of original cards inspired by Obra’s works, by Italian artist Judith Lange. Sala Cultural Ebusus.

12h. Exhibition opening: Libros de artista. Félix Waske, Jean Willi and friends. Galería Vía 2.

17h. Talk: Onetti in the literary circles of his era, by Rosalba Campra.

Presented by Claudio Pérez Míguez.

Book presentation: Cortázar para cómplices from Centro Editores: Madrid, 2009. First edition; and Formas de la memoria, texts by Rosalba Campra; illustrations by Giuseppe Dierna and prologue by Raúl Brasca. Centro Editores: Madrid, 2009. Es Polvorí.

18h. Homage to Juan Carlos Onetti. Reading by Ángel Marco.

Presented by Raúl Manrique. Es Polvorí.

19:30h. Recital: Olvido García Valdés.

Presented by Reinhard Huamán Mori. Es Polvorí.

21:30h. Performance by Enemigos de Jardín: Borja Aguiló, Víctor Balcells Matas, Ben Clark y Fabio Rodríguez de la Flor. Restaurante Ke Kafé.

 *

Friday 19th March

10h. Book presentation. Víctor Balcells Matas: “Yo mataré monstruos por ti” published by Delirio.

Presented by Fabio Rodríguez de la Flor. Es Polvorí.

11h. Homage to Miguel Hernández and launch of the Colección del Centenario del Nacimiento de Miguel Hernández, Eivissa 2010. “Miguel Hernández en su centenario”, by Aitor L. Larrabide, director of the Taller de Empleo Centenario Miguel Hernández and consultant for the Fundación Cultural Miguel Hernández.

Moderated by Efraín Espinoza, Press Secretary of the festival. Es Polvorí.

13:00 h. Homage to Carme Riera. Coordinated by Mario Riera. Es Polvorí.

17h. Homage to Mario Benedetti. Talk by Ángel Marco.

Presented by Paula Malugani. Es Polvorí.

19:30h Reading by Antonio Colinas and presentation of Tres Tratados de Armonía.

Presented by Vicente Valero. Club Diario de Ibiza.

21h. III International Poetry Festival of Ibiza. Participants: Diego Velasco (Quito, Ecuador), Delia Rengifo (Caracas, Venezuela), Ben Clark (Ibiza, España).

Presentation of the first prize for poetry: Crónica Latina 2009, Delia Rengifo.

Presented by Carles Fabregat. Club Diario de Ibiza.

* 

Saturday 20th March

11h. Lecture: The Andean imagination, architecture and literature. Diego Velasco.

Presented by Efraín Espinoza. Es Polvorí.

12h. Homage to Jorge Enrique Adoum. In the presence of the Honorable Francisco Contreras Domínguez, Ecuadorian Consul.

Presented by Efraín Espinoza. Es Polvorí.

Book presentation: 21 poetas ecuatorianos del siglo xx. Guests: Diego Velasco and Gabriel Torres, the author of the prologue. Es Polvorí.

13h. Lecture: From Juan Carlos Onetti to Julio Cortázar. Mariángeles Fernández.

Presented by Claudio Pérez Míguez. Es Polvorí.

17h. Salto de Página publishing house. An ‘in conversation’ with Alejandro Hernández.

Presented by Daniel Martínez. Librería Hipérbole.

19 h. Book launch ‘La voz del Manglar’. Published by Del Centro Editores. Author Gabriel Torres Chalk, sleeve art by Félix Waske and prologue by Raúl Zurita.

Presented by Raúl Zurita. Accompanied by the saxofonist Ivan M. Club Diario de Ibiza.

20 h. Book launch ´Puerto Mediterráneo del Libro 2009´ with slideshow memoria del mar. Puerto Mediterráneo del Libro.

Presented by Gabriel Torres, Efraín Espinoza, Paula Malugani, and Reinhard Huamán.

Club Diario de Ibiza.

* 

 Sunday 21st March

12h. Childrens literature day. With Delia Rengifo. Book presentation: Cantares de Delita. Published by Gráficas Lauki, Poems by Delia Rengifo and illustrations by Raúl Díaz. . Es Polvorí.

20:30h. Closing reading: Raúl Zurita. Can Ventosa.

With Gabriel Torres Chalk and Vicent Ferrer, Deputy Mayor of Ibiza.

Entrance to all events is free.

Calle de la Vía Púnica, 2
07800 Eivissa
971 30 09 57

The annual Dia de les Illes Balears, March 1^st, is a public holiday to celebrate the 1983 Statute of Autonomy of the Balearic Islands, and every year the ajuntament puts on various events to celebrate it. This year’s events included a charming evening of music and dance at Santa Eularia’s Palau de Congresos, which included a piano recital with local pianist Elvira Ramon and the Spanish tenor Aurelio Gabaldón. This was followed by a recital and dance interpretation based on Federico Garcia Lorca’s verse.

The 403 seat auditorium, run by director Simona Bianchi which is used for concerts, theatre, opera and film screenings is very well-equipped. According to their admin department the entire acoustic control system is located on the roof, where the technical control of the facilities is linked to precise calculation of the acoustics of the halls.

The piano recital was a lovely warm-up to the evening, and tenor Gabaldón performed an eclectic and ambitious selection of songs from Tosti, Mozart, Obradors, Alonso, Serrano, Ramírez, Sorozábal, Gounod, Buononcini and Bellini. My favourite being Gounod’s Ah! Lève-toi soleil from the balcony scene in his Romeo and Juliette.

The main spectacle though was the Lorca event which followed. Dancer Rocío Osuna skilfully interpreted a mixture of cancions, accompanied by soprano Lucia Herranz, channeling the attitudes of Lorca’s sometime collaborator La Argentinita, and as well as through curved lines and rigour all of her own. The highlight of the event was undoubtedly her perfectly tuned exposition of Romance Sonambulo.

The producers also used a projection of images from the poet’s life in between pieces, and the skilled narrator took us through Lorca’s early days, travels to America, his life and work in bohemian circles in Spain and his association with Dali and Bunuel.

Helen Donlon

Barbary Press and Balàfia Postals are pleased to invite you to the launch of the book by Paul R. Davis, edited by Martin Davies and illustrated with drawings and photographs by the author

IBIZA AND FORMENTERA’S HERITAGE

A NON-CLUBBER’S GUIDE

(separate editions in English, Catalan and Castillian)

which will take place on Friday 11th December, 2009 at 8.30pm in the Biblioteca Municipal d’Eivissa, Can Ventosa, Av. d’Ignasi Wallis, 26.

Guest speakers Emily Kaufman and Salvador Roig

Barbary Press i Balàfia Postals es complauen a convidar-vos a la presentació del llibre de Paul R. Davis, traduït per Joan-Albert Ribas et il.lustrat amb dibuixes i fotografies de l’autor

EIVISSA I FORMENTERA

EL LLEGAT HISTORIC

que tindrà lloc el divendres 11 desembre 2009, a les 20.30h a la Biblioteca Municipal d’Eivissa, Can Ventosa, Av. d’Ignasi Wallis, 26. La presentació serà a càrrec de Salvador Roig, Emily Kaufman i Martin Davies

Barbary Press y Balàfia Postals tienen el gusto de invitarles a la presentación del libro de Paul R. Davis, traducido por Montse Ribes Sagues e ilustrado con dibujos y fotografias del autor

IBIZA Y FORMENTERA

EL LEGADO HISTORICO

que tendra lugar el viernes, 11 de diciembre de 2009 a las 20.30h en la Biblioteca Municipal d’Eivissa, Can Ventosa, Av. d’Ignasi Wallis, 26. La presentación sera a cargo de Salvador Roig, Emily Kaufman y Martin Davies

Starting this sunday lunchtime, 15th November at Sandy’s Bar in Santa Eularia, a special sunday roast service at only 12 euros per head.

Renowned for her infamous *special* gravy, Brighton chef Lou aka skweezy is opening her winter season of sunday roast lunches accompanied by an open fire, sunday papers and delicious wines for a relaxed sunday afternoon dining experience.

On the menu this week will be roast pork, roast beef and roast chicken, and vegetarian nut roast or veggie sausages for vegans. All come with braised red cabbage with cinnamon and nutmeg, honey roast carrots, minted peas, cauiflower cheese, crispy roast tatties, and yorkshire pudding.

Skweezy’s sunday service will be every sunday through winter from 2pm till 5pm

You can also call Lou to reserve if you wish on 627 106 427.