CARAVASAR

As if we were in a real-life medina, where people wander back and forth, meeting and disappearing, last Wednesday Caravasar offered us a journey in which music from many places came together in an impossibly wonderful union.
Bulgarian, Moroccan, Turkish, Syrian and Algerian themes combined to make a concert that confirmed the group, led by the excellent lute-player Joaquín Rodero, as one of the fundamental pieces of musical machinery in Andalusia.
This has been possible not only because of the vitality and the work that they show in all their concerts, but also due to the outstanding musical ability of all the members, from the percussionist Alvaro Garrido to the guitarist Chiqui García, not to mention the saxophone, flute and clarinet of Ignacio Gil and Ignacio Bejar, and the indispensable voice and violin of Amin Chaachoo. The audience in the Alcazar, who are often quite distant, succumbed - right from the opening theme - to a group they love and whose presence they demand every year, not just once, but three times, on this stage. It won’t be until August 14th and September 3rd that they will play again to a full audience, with the mutual desire that their music will soon be recorded on a second album. And in fact their beautiful and essential signature piece ‘La Ruta de la Seda (Resistencia)’ [The Silk Route (Resistance)], now does no more than bear witness to a group which has not stopped growing and surpassing themselves over the years.
The group is still a stranger to the Womex festival in Caceres, La Mar de Músicas in Cartagena, and even the Territorios Festival in Seville. What are they waiting for? Unfortunately, pop culture is the one that is gaining more and more ground, and projects such as this one by Caravasar, in which culture, tradition and fun are united, are rejected. And it is that fusion which makes you love them so much as soon as you listen to their music.

- Correo Andalucía

Caravasar is an ensemble of exquisite taste. Their music, meandering and mantric, is based on the sonorous traditions of Turkey, Bulgaria, Armenia, Morocco, Greece and other cultures so close and yet at the same time, unfortunately so unfamiliar to us. With a similar approach to that taken by the Companyia Eléctrica Drama, Casavella, Urbália Rurana, Vox Populi and other Catalonian groups, Caravasar fuses the music of ancestral Mediterranean cultures with contemporary musical languages. The use of the soprano sax, played by Ignacio Gil with finesse and a spirit that owes something to jazz, gives wings of light to the tone of Caravasar. Alvaro Garrido, meticulous and sober, guarantees remarkable rhythmic richness in the percussion.Precise and expressive instrumentalists Juan Manuel Rubio, on oud and zanfoña, and Chiqui Garcia, especially on bouzouki and darbouka, feed the sounds of Caravasar with an air that brings us the most identifiable echo of the Mediterranean. And finally, the inclusion of Amin Chaachoo has increased the potential of the group, which has profited from his suggestive capacity for vocal improvisation, and from his powers of interpretation, especially remarkable on the violin, which he plays with uncommon naturalness.
The audience, delighted, acclaimed Caravasar with much enthusiasm, especially after their absolutely brilliant performance of the traditional Turkish composition ‘Istanbul’. The simplicity of the staging and the honesty in the group’s way of introducing the pieces enhanced their rapport with the audience. Caravasar’s repertoire, full of expression, is like the musical projection of the literary work by Manuel Vicent, steeped in the sensuality of the Mediterranean and the philosophy of life of the civilisations that have lived there. It will be worth closely following the progress of Caravasar and also that of the other projects by Zanfoñamovil, the company formed by the group, whose aim is to diffuse both music and culture.

- La voz de Girona