El Gabinete

Artist Information

Biography

In 2006, Mexico lived through one of its worst political years. Reading newspapers could only be called depressing; the electoral campaign was the dirtiest one in recent history. In those times, Daniel Aspuru, Enrique Gil and Kristian Galicia were playing music for the joy of it. In rehearsals, they found themselves continuously discussing Mexico's dire political climate and commenting on newspaper articles all the time, to the extent that they discovered that the news was inspiring them to compose music.

After months of political tension, Mexico was in a unique situation: One president had "won" the elections, rife with accusations of fraud, and another candidate declared himself the "legitimate president" in the public square before millions of people. "For the first time in history, Mexico had two cabinets, which is why we decided to form the third one: El Gabinete, which means The Cabinet" - the group explained.

The band members, who present themselves as state secretaries and ministers, created their first record together, a unique contribution to Mexico's music scene. The album includes statements from former presidents and ministers, and the voices of people from different walks of life, mixed with a captivating blend of sound and music that invites reflection.

The band is also an innovative pioneer in using technology. They are on tour throughout Mexico in 2008, traveling by a van specially customized for live broadcasting of audio and video through a satellite connection via their website and a newly created FaceBook (social networking) interface. This bold synthesis of broadcasting, live performance, and interaction�with live audiences in local spaces and beyond�is a first of its kind in the world.

The El Gabinete website encourages interaction with its listeners, since it is equipped with a registration form for fans through which they can geocode their addresses to a map pinpointing the locations of people from all over the world who tune in to listen to El Gabinete.

The new group has been widely covered by various branches of the media in Mexico, because since its founding, the group continues to surprise with its creative, bold initiatives never before done in Mexico.

Instrumentation

Secretary of Culture
Daniel Aspuru: Soprano Sax, Tabla, Piano, Keyboards and percussions.

Secretary of Energy
Enrique Gil: Guitar synth, Electric guitar and Cajon peruano.

Secretary of Defense
Kristian Galicia "Krispo": Electric and acoustic guitars, electronic programming.

Discography

-- El Gabinete EP --
IguanaMusic.com
Released: January 2007
*This was a pre-release of their first record which contained 3 songs.

-- El Gabinete --
IguanaMusic.com / Fonarte Latino
Released: December 2007
* The album contains 11 songs and a very extensive booklet designed by the most famous cartoon makers of Mexico (El Fisgon, Rogelio Naranjo, Boligan, Alejandro Magallanes and more).

Links

• El Gabinete official web site
• El Gabinete's videos on Youtube
• El Gabinete on MySpace
• El Gabinete on Last.fm
• El Gabinete on iLike.com

Audio

• Paracetamol
  Listen  
• Costumbre Salvaje
  Listen  
• ContraFlujo
  Listen  
• Estado de derecho, Atenco
  Listen  
• Patria Muerta
  Listen  

Video

El Gabinete - Documentary

Photo Gallery

Press

• Jazz musicians merge with politics [+ Show ]
  

  (Dec-04-2007). - After more that one year that El Gabinete has taken up office, they have given resu...(Dec-04-2007). - After more that one year that El Gabinete has taken up office, they have given results: 11 songs included in a homonym CD that pretends to be the instrumental feature of the principal political events of 2006.
  
  El Gabinete is a music band made up of Daniel Aspuru, Kristian Galicia "Krispo" and Enrique Gil, who combine original recordings of political speeches and events with jazz and electronic music rhythms in order to avoid, they state, that the people forget the social repressions of 2006.
  
  Next Friday they will offer a show in Ollin Kan to launch their first CD produced by Iguana Music.
  
  “This CD summarizes an absolute rejection to the narrowness minds that show our governors. The CD is created with our weapons and language, which are our instruments and our music”, they state in the launch of the CD.
  
  Before the last year elections, the three musicians wanted to create an instrumental band. 2006 was the year of most numerous demonstrations in the capital city of the country, of police repression of Oaxaca and Atenco, of a dirty war as regards elections which left a presidential election far from being transparent, remembered Aspuru.
  
  “It was very depressing that every day we watched the news we talked in our rehearsals as regards politics; and instinctively, we started making songs about that and we decided to look for a social communication concept. Art must reflect social problems”, he explained.
  
  Therefore, they divided their positions: Aspuru as culture secretary, Kristian Galicia in the defense department and Enrique Gil in the energy department.
  
  “Two cabinets had been created, the ‘legitimate’ and the other one, therefore we decided to create the third one. This one had to work, not spend so much money and after all, it is a satire of the other two”, added Enrique Gil.
  
  They started giving a simple (EP) with three songs: “Estado de Derecho”, Atenco; with real recordings of the repression in Atenco; “Contraflujo”, with the opposite speeches of Vicente Fox and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, as well as a musical poem of Jaime Sabines.
  
  El Gabinete did not want to have a clear music style and preferred the sounds that better adjusted to the available news material.
  
  “The result is as heterogeneous as the audience is”, Kristian Galicia said.
  
  “We pretend to create a kind of musical bulletin and also want to be heard, because we were indignant about the electoral fraud, about Chiapas, about Oaxaca and Atenco”, he added.
  
  They also created their own website (www.elgabinete.org) which has 160 daily visits. Apart from the above mentioned songs, among the new ones there are: Foxilandia, La raza cosmica, Costumbre salvaje and Patria muerta.
  
  The CD includes pictures of the creators of caricatures Rogelio Naranjo, Rafael Barajas, “El Fisgon” and Boligan, among others, and it can be bought in Mix Up, Tower Records, in bookstores and in wwwiguanamusic.com.
  
  At the beginning of Estado de Derecho, Atenco, the comments of Frente de Defensa de los Pueblos are heard: “Three thousand elements against 50 which were in this town square. What a heroes, what a Rule law, what a shit”, and then an electronic and relaxing music.
  
  The song Paracetamol contains recordings of a woman who participated in the occupation of the university radio station, on August 1st, 2006 in Oaxaca.
  
  The show of El Gabinete will take place next Friday at 8.30p.m. in Multiforo Ollin Kan (Av. San Fernando corner Juarez, Center of Tlalpan).
  

• El Gabinete makes music to enjoy and reflect, without pedantry: Aspuru [+ Show ]
  

  (Jun-28-2007). - “For the first time in the Mexican history, there are three cabinets: the elected g...(Jun-28-2007). - “For the first time in the Mexican history, there are three cabinets: the elected government, the legitimate government, and ours!, stated Daniel Aspuru, who together with Enrique Gil and Kristian Galicia (Krispo) is part of the band El Gabiente, that make, he added, “music to enjoy, reflect, without demagogy, pedantry and foolishness”.
  
  He added that “for those three cabinets, for only two we have the initiative of making the people participate, at the possible extent”. We will not remain quiet; we will tell the people what happened doing the best we can do: music”.
  
  El Gabinete launched its first CD (a homonym EP with Iguana Music), with three songs: Estado de derecho, Atenco; ContraFlujo, and Costumbre salvaje (writed by Jaime Sabines). Gil said that “they have embarked on a crusade with the purpose of making the audience participate in a musical trip of appearances that we frequently see or hear in our Mexican reality and most of the times are forgotten”.
  
  He added that the band was created a year ago. “We named the band El Gabinete, because we started making music before the presidential elections took place, when all started to be very shady. We only talked about that and we decided to create a real cabinet”.
  
  Gil said that “what we do is not only a protest, but a criticism to what happens in the country. We can not shut up because we come from an irregular election. Everything is being solved with bumps. They think that suppress is the way of solving the problems, and we do not believe it is the best way, and we have to keep alive the moments that have happened and that said moments do not be shown only in the news, radio, television or print press.
  
  “What happened in Atenco and Chipas must not be forgotten, we want the people to think about it through our music”. Krispo: “We want to make the music flow, instead of thinking of genres. If we like, we make a mambo, for instance.”
  
  We are on the people’s side, because it is very difficult to defend a party by all means. I voted. We, the Mexicans, do not vote for the party that convinces us, but for the one that is closer to our ideologies and necessities.
  
  In the video Estado de derecho, Atenco, images of the police repression are shown; the recording of ContraFlujo contains extracts of the political speeches of Vicente Fox and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, in which it can be heard "an abysmal difference with the facts; reflect the incoherence of what we live in the country". Costumbre salvaje is a song without political content.
  
  The EP is given as a present. Gil: “You can order it via Internet www.elgabinete.org, you have to fill an application and then you receive it in your address. We are recording the CD that will include 11 tracks and it will be finished by August. We know that nowadays the shows are the business instead of the Cds”.
  
  He regretted that the music range is poor and not so wide in the radio. “You turn on the radio and you listen bad copies, most of them being foreign music. It’s worth making an own project. What we do seems to be funny, but if it is heard, it may be cause depression. The poor wealth distribution is the worst thing that this city has”.
  

• El Gabinete and its worldview of the modern Mexico [+ Show ]
  

  (Dic-8-2007). - City of Mexico. - After ten months of arduous work, Daniel Aspuru, Kristian Galicia ...(Dic-8-2007). - City of Mexico. - After ten months of arduous work, Daniel Aspuru, Kristian Galicia "Krispo" and Enrique Gil, members of the band El Gabinete, launched their first CD.
  
  The musicians finished their project with collaboration of the following well-known artists and people who make caricatures: El Fisgon, Rogelio Naranjo, Ariel Guzik, Boligan, Juan Ruiz Beltran and Alejandro Magallanes.
  
  The material contained in the CD is a mixture of voices of freedom and economical, political and social analysis, which are part of the worldview of the modern Mexico.
  
  "Foxilandia", "Estado de Derecho", "Atenco", "Domador de Estrellas", "Contraflujo", "El Hombre Maquina", "Patria Muerta", "Grillete", "La Raza Cosmica", "Paracetamol” and other songs are part of El Gabinete’s homonym CD .
  
  For its creators, the CD summarizes the absolute rejection to the narrowness minds that show the governors of the country.
  
  The CD is created with our weapons and language, which are our instruments and our music”, stated the members of the band.
  
  For Daniel Aspuru, the purpose of the CD is that the people become aware of these problems through the music, use the music in a different way as it always has been used, that the music arouses the viscera, added the composer.
  
  As regards the letters of the songs, these are the result of a wide and deep research of the members of El Gabinete, where each of them suggested a subject and later on a search of data, videos, writs and documentation that may support them was carried out.
  
  “The letters are not signed and the participation of all the members is tried to be equal”, the producers informed.
  
  Although the musical genre of El Gabinete is difficult to classify, the musicians stated that they did not want to create a particular genre, but they wanted to make music with out limits, without thinking in genres and styles.
  
  Nowadays, Aspuru, "Krispo" and Gil have five songs already prepared for the following CD.
  
  For more information about the work and production of El Gabinete, visit the website: www.elgabinete.org
  
  

• "El Gabinete" takes possession in Oaxaca [+ Show ]
  

  (Nov-24-2007).- “El Gabinete” offers music to reflect, sometimes to laugh and most of the times the ...(Nov-24-2007).- “El Gabinete” offers music to reflect, sometimes to laugh and most of the times the music is melancholic…
  
  “Our depression and concern for the Mexican people has increased to an extent that we discovered that the music started to be a result of those feelings" Daniel Aspuru
  
  ”I would tell Calderón that he must think in the long-term Mexico, that finally he will be remembered as legitimate president”
  Daniel Aspuru
  
  ”I hope there is more and more people fighting against the huge injustice there is in our country and that one day so much weight be accumulated so that a true change be inevitable… ”
  Daniel Aspuru
  
  *After the elections, the country came up with two cabinets, “therefore, we decided to create the third one…”, said Daniel Aspuru.
  
  With the hope that at the end of the day there is a Mexican with a smile in his face, Daniel Aspuru, Secretary of Culture of “El Gabinete”, answered to EL IMPARCIAL questions as regards the creation of the band, their political point of view, their pessimism and their first CD that will be launched on Thursday November 29th in El Bar Central at 10.00 p.m. And in La Bodega de Carga de Museo Ferrocarril, on December Saturday 1st.
  
  How did El Gabinete create?
  We started meeting in June 2006, in order to rehearse and make shows of instrumental music. During the first rehearsals, we were going through the pre-electoral period. Every day, we arrived to the rehearsals with newspapers to make comments about what our country was going through. If you remember, the thing got worse every day. The polls, the dirty television campaigns, the streets full of rubbish propaganda, the cynical campaign of the presidency in order to impose its candidate, etc.
  
  Our depression and concern for the Mexican people has increased to an extent that we discovered that the music started to be a result of those feelings, the situation in that Mexico started to inspire us to try to communicate our way of seeing and feeling the things.
  
  The elections passed and the country came up with two cabinets for the first time in the history, therefore we decided to create the third one, if they can, why cant’ we? Therefore, in situ, Enrique Gil became the Secretary of the Energy Department, Kristian Galicia “Krispo” the Secretary of the Defence Department, and I the Secretary of Culture.
  
  Which are the responsibilities that this “Cabinet” has with the Mexican people?
  I think that all the Mexicans have an important responsibility with ourselves: to help each other. Our way of helping ourselves is to spread good music, mixed with historical sound documents, which if they weren’t published in a CD, they would be discarded or unpublished.
  
  For instance, our CD contains recordings of true testimonies. In one of them Miguel de la Madrid can be heard in an interview in which he clearly and specifically accepted the fraud of 1988, he says: “[...]
  
  That was the reason why PRI lost the elections of 1988. [...]”.
  We also have the responsibility of using our music as a communication language that gets out the music itself that, apart from the style, the virtuosism or the interviews, can make the people hear and reflect about our present.
  Making the people be aware that we only are a grain of sand of the tons which are necessary to achieve a true change is also our responsibility. The only thing we do is to try to make the people be aware of our trench, which is the music.
  
  Do you create consciousness?
  Well, first we believe that consciousness is created due to a great number of factors; we only offer an alternative to appreciate music. We offer music to reflect, sometimes to laugh and most of the times the music is melancholic.
  
  In some cases our music has caused worries, questions, and dialogues to the people, and that is exactly what we are looking for; that the people can listen to the things that happened, that the people can talk about them and can feel them. We know that some people cry with some of the songs of the CD. Usually, because they are listening to things that happened and that they didn’t know that happened. That type of things are the ones that most reward us.
  
  - Who participate in this CD?
  Many people participate in this CD; all of them have participated in a positive and touching way. For instance, the drawing in the sleeve of the CD is made by El Fisgón, inspired on the first versions of the recordings of the CD. Rogelio Naranjo, Boligán, Ariel Guzik and other excellent artists participated in the final artwork, all this compiled by the design teacher Alejandro Magallanes, whose participation is fundamental in the success of the project. All of the above mentioned people and more people are already part of the “Honorable Congreso de la Unión”.
  
  Steven Brown participates in the song and video clip "Foxilandia", with his voice and clarinet, apart from two talented musicians of the city of Mexico, Gabriel Nuñez and Ingrid Bernhardt in the songs Quizás, Quizás, Quizás", "Grillete" and "Foxilandia" respectively.
  
  All the composition, execution, recording, mixing and mastering of the CD was performed in Los Pinos and Segob exclusively for “El Gabinete” during 2006 and 2007.
  
  -How did you obtain and choose the recordings that are heard in some songs?
  
  Each of the recordings has its story; the one that touches us most is the one of the song Paracetamol. In the recording one of the women who participated in the occupation of the university radio station, on August 1st, 2006 in Oaxaca is heard. The woman from Sierra Juárez stated the following in a transmission: “[...]
  
  The clinics over there are empty [...], [...] The only thing that can be found is paracetamol for cancer, for diarrhea, paracetamol for everything [...]”. Due to that recording, we decided to make the first CD launch at a national level in the city of Oaxaca.
  
  Other recordings were very easy to get, you only have to look for “Vicente Fox + grabación” in Google and many incoherent statements will appear. Other very interesting one is found in an old acetate record.
  
  The voice is of an Ex-prime Minister of Ecuador, Jaime Roldós. This Sir. mentions the cosmic race of José Vasconcelos in some words addressed to López Portillo when he arrived to Mexico. One year later, he died in a plane accident. Many sources say that the plane had been sabotaged with a bomb put by the United States government.
  
  Other sources are more reflective and some are poetical, as the one of Jaime Sabines reciting one of his refined poems in Fine Arts.
  
  - “El Gabinete” takes up again the three most important events of 2006 in its songs: Atenco, Oaxaca and the presidential elections: have you been censored?
  We haven’t been censored yet by the media because we haven’t talked about things that we believe the censorship will be automatic.
  
  What does El Gabinete expect for 2010?
  We expect more people give grains of sand, fight against the huge injustice there is in our country and that one day so much weight be accumulated so that a true change be inevitable for the good of the people. We expect more people to choose art instead of weapons in demonstrations.
  
  Are you pessimists?
  I think that being pessimist is part of doing nothing; we believe that things will get better, and every day we make an effort to share that spirit with the people. However, after reading the newspapers is inevitable being pessimist for a short period of time.
  
  If you had Ulises Ruiz in front of you, what would you tell him?
  I would ask him what would be his answer if in his 10 years of age he was allowed to read the front page of a newspaper of November 26, 2006 and then he would be asked the following: “This is you as and adult”, what are you going to do?”
  
  And to Felipe Calderón?
  I would ask him to think more in the long-term Mexico, that finally, he will be remembered as a legitimate president. I would tell him that although he has the power, he can still give his grain of sand.
  
  Finally, is there hope for Mexico?
  In thirty years the things will be very different, the fossil energy will be very expensive, the politics of all kinds will have to look inside instead of looking outside, I hope that the moment when the political leaders have to take a decision and stop giving the nation to the world does not occur late.
  
  My hope is that after everything has exploded, there can always be a Mexican who smile and give you a strong hug. That’s why I live in Mexico and I dedicate to the people in a modest way with the best I can give, the music.
  
  El Gabinete
  
  * Secretary of Culture
  Daniel Aspuru
  Functions: Saxophone, Hindu tabla, synthesizers, percussions and voice.
  
  * Secretary of Defence
  Kristian Galicia “Krispo”
  Functions: Electric guitar, acoustic guitar, electronic sequences and voice.
  
  * Secretary of Energy
  Enrique Gil
  Functions: Electric guitar, guitar synth, acoustic guitar, Peruvian cajon and voice.
  
  Information
  
  The CD can be obtained in MixUp, bookshops and in Internet www.iguanamusic.com, the CD contains 11 songs and it is distributed by Fonarte Latino.
  

Setlist

Two hours of original music witch changes from concert to concert, there are no identical concerts. We also project some short video editions in the intermediate part of the show and in some pieces.

Please ask for the precise set list if wanted.

Basic Requirements

Calendar