Gabriel Parpusa

José Luis de la Quintana a.k.a. Gabriel Parpusa (Madrid, 1994) is the recipient of the 5th Call for Residencies of the Matadero Centre for Artists in Residence intended for emerging bands and solo artists from the city of Madrid.

The inspiration for his project comes from historiographical research into traditional music written in Spanish from its origins and how it has been brought up to date in the contemporary world. His pseudonym, Gabriel Parpusa, derives from Madrid folklore, as a Gabriel is the waistcoat and the Parpusa the beret of the city’s traditional chulapo costume.

The project entails the creation of a musical album based on the relationship between language and sound, with lyrics based on the copla understood as a poetic genre and taking into account different aspects such as the themes addressed, the style, the expressions and the metrics. The aim of this album is to create a fusion of styles from an innovative point of view, bringing localisms to life and modifying the culture of globalisation.

On the one hand, his music is influenced by contemporary artistic movements that are far removed from traditional Spanish song. On the other hand, in parallel, it incorporates recognisable elements of specifically Spanish musical genres, while respecting the traditional composition of lyrics in Spanish. His main objective is to study the adaptation of traditional metrics and narratives that create melodies parallel to the musical base, thus searching for a folklore that looks to the past and to the future.

Thanks to this residency, Gabriel hopes to reaffirm the relevance of the octosyllable as the quintessential Castilian verse, while at all times creating a conceptual offering that is coherent with the contemporary world.