​Crúas is a Galician duo formed by Alba Ermida and Iria San Marcial, whose project centres on setting Galician poetry to music. Since launching in 2023, the pair have worked with texts by writers such as Rosalía de Castro, Darío Xohán Cabana, Olga Novo and Helena Villar, using genres like muiñeiras, rumbas and jazz to bridge literary heritage and contemporary sound. The project began taking shape years earlier when Alba, while studying in Buenos Aires, started composing music for poems her father had given her. Back in Galicia, she met Iria, a pianist and fellow admirer of Galician literature. Their shared interest grew into Crúas, a collaboration focused on keeping poetry “raw”—or, as they explain, “poesía crúa”—and letting the music simply carry it.

Their song “Compañeira,” released on the 28th of February, is an exception within their catalogue: a fully original composition in both music and lyrics. As the duo explains, it was “a composition of lyrics and music that was born years ago as a game, as provocation, as rebellion. But it wasn’t until now that it found its time, its maturity.” Built on the pulse of a traditional muiñeira, the song explores themes of farewell, grief and companionship through the metaphor of the sea—a central symbol in Galician cultural memory—as a metaphor for release. The repeating refrain takes on a ritual quality, anchoring the song in emotion as much as rhythm.

What makes “Compañeira” distinct is not just that the words are their own, but that the song still feels in dialogue with the wider tradition they usually reinterpret. The arrangement is restrained—vocals, piano, a sense of space—and the lyrics are emotionally open without being ornamental. It’s a piece that marks a new direction for Crúas, one that shows they’re as comfortable creating within the tradition as they are drawing from it.

You can find more about Crúas and listen to their music HERE