“El Poder del Cant” finds London-based ensemble Periscopi Invertit, originally formed in Barcelona and led by bassist/composer Mireia Carbonell, reimagining a centuries-old Catalan romance through a vibrant, pan-Mediterranean lens. The original folk melody tells the story of a prisoner whose guitar playing is so moving that it captures the heart of a queen. She offers him freedom and marriage, but he declines, convinced that life inside prison is preferable to the outside world. In Periscopi Invertit’s adaptation, the monarch becomes a king, and the narrative’s conclusion is left deliberately unresolved, inviting the listener to interpret the prisoner’s fate and the ruler’s motives.

Musically, the group reframes the traditional melody within a rumba catalana structure, introducing subtle rhythmic changes and modal shifts that give the piece a contemporary pulse. Laura Guarch delivers the vocal with emotional clarity, while Yaz Fentazi contributes both llaut and drums, joined by Karim Dellali on darbuka, Thomas McBrien on piano, and Christian Carnio, whose live performance element as dancer adds a physical counterpoint to the layered soundscape. The instrumentation blends Maghrebi percussion, flute, jazz inflection and Catalan melody with precision and warmth. Each voice and instrument responds to the next, making “El Poder del Cant” a living conversation between past and present, tradition and invention.

You can stream, listen to “El Poder del Cant” HERE