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Sesiones de escucha en mi coche

Laura Llaneli

When I invited Laura to participate in Playlist Curada, she told me about a project she wanted to carry out: sharing musical interests with friends, but this time inside her car.


A playlist composed of four albums, each chosen to accompany a journey to each of the four cardinal points.

About this playlist

Laura Llaneli’s work explores the conditions under which we listen and with whom we do so. Over the years, her "Listening Sessions" have developed in the intimacy of small audiences, whether in her room with a record player or on a rooftop with speakers. When I invited Laura to participate in Playlist Curada, she told me about a project she wanted to pursue: sharing musical interests with friends, but this time inside her car. The idea was for each person to choose an album no longer than an hour and play it as we took a trip heading north, then west, south, and finally east —a road trip with no fixed destination beyond the cardinal points the road trip with no fixed destination beyond the cardinal points.

The result of Listening Sessions in My Car can be listened in this playlist featuring four albums, each designed for a different direction. 

A road trip with no fixed destination beyond the cardinal points.

Laura assigned each of us a compass direction for the route: Pep got north, Joana west, I got south, and she chose east for herself.

Pep Vidal

Norte

Joana Hurtado

Oeste

Gris García

Sur

Laura Llaneli

Este

On Sunday, July 28, 2024, we met at Sant Cugat’s train station. Sant Cugat.

At 9:15 h., Joana Hurtado, Pep Vidal, Laura Llaneli, and I got into the car and drove off, listening to the album picked for each direction.

Capacity, Big Thief

Mataró and the magnetic North Pole

42 minutes North

Pep went first, flipping a coin to choose between two albums without telling us the titles. Luck chose Capacity, a 2017 album by Big Thief—an album that speaks about the north and mistakes. Due to Barcelona’s geography and its roads, heading directly north isn’t possible. “Although the compass points north, there’s a certain impossibility in the journey,” Pep told us. 

He has always been obsessed with the fact that the compass points to the North. Previously, he had planned a project titled Following the (Magnetic) North Pole intending to follow the compass from Canada to Russia. “I’ll always have that idea of the north, of going there, chasing it. The question is: what music would I play if I could finally go?” 

There is music that accompanies directions.

Bales of hay on the way to Vic

57 minutes West

Next, it was Joana Hurtado's turn. With the classic idea of the Far West in mind, in pure Ennio Morricone style, Joana chose a band from Los Angeles called Eels. Specifically, she selected the album Tomorrow Morning, an album full of nuances and sounds that, as she told us, could not be appreciated in the same way in the car as with headphones.

Our sonic experience transformed with the movement. From the window, we could see a series of hills with flat tops instead of ridges, and bales of hay that seemed to have come straight from California, in sync with the guitar chords to the rhythm of I like the way this is going.

Undoubtedly, there are landscapes that are songs.

Tomorrow Morning, Eels
Live: The last concert, Selena

Tex-Mex cumbias towards to Igualada

52 minutes South

I (Gris) was the third to share an album. Thinking about a road trip to the south inevitably led me to Selena, my childhood idol who accompanied me on my journeys back to Mexico after visiting my family in Texas. Selena —daughter of a Mexican father and a cherokee mother—was a pioneer of Tex-Mex, a musical genre that carries a hyphen in the middle, like the Rio Bravo that divides us. Selena’s last live performance was recorded in 1994 in Houston, a city where she always added “Mexico” every time she greeted the audience: “Thanks to our brothers from Houston, Texas-Mexico.” The mountains of Montserrat appeared to the rhythm of La Carcacha and Como la Flor, a landscape reminiscent of when the Cerro de la Silla would come into view as I arrived in Monterrey.

There are also albums that are landscapes.

Progressive rock and flamenco on our way back to Sant Cugat

60 minutes East

The final leg of the journey was to the east. Laura shared her choice: "Omega", an album by Enrique Morente that blends two musical styles she has always wanted to fuse—progressive rock and flamenco. Laura described the album as "dark" due to the melancholy of its songs and the intensity of its sounds, which fit perfectly for traversing the tunnels of the highway, accompanied by the electric guitar and Morente's deep singing.

We felt goosebumps listening to Poema para los muertos (A Poem for the Dead), his voice stretching his breath as much as possible in a journey that was coming to an end.

Omega, Enrique Morente
Capacity, Big Thief

Mataró and the magnetic North Pole

42 minutes North

Pep went first, flipping a coin to choose between two albums without telling us the titles. Luck chose Capacity, a 2017 album by Big Thief—an album that speaks about the north and mistakes. Due to Barcelona’s geography and its roads, heading directly north isn’t possible. “Although the compass points north, there’s a certain impossibility in the journey,” Pep told us. 

He has always been obsessed with the fact that the compass points to the North. Previously, he had planned a project titled Following the (Magnetic) North Pole intending to follow the compass from Canada to Russia. “I’ll always have that idea of the north, of going there, chasing it. The question is: what music would I play if I could finally go?” 

There is music that accompanies directions.

Tomorrow Morning, Eels

Bales of hay on the way to Vic

57 minutes West

Next, it was Joana Hurtado's turn. With the classic idea of the Far West in mind, in pure Ennio Morricone style, Joana chose a band from Los Angeles called Eels. Specifically, she selected the album Tomorrow Morning, an album full of nuances and sounds that, as she told us, could not be appreciated in the same way in the car as with headphones.

Our sonic experience transformed with the movement. From the window, we could see a series of hills with flat tops instead of ridges, and bales of hay that seemed to have come straight from California, in sync with the guitar chords to the rhythm of I like the way this is going.

Undoubtedly, there are landscapes that are songs.

Live: The last concert, Selena

Tex-Mex cumbias towards to Igualada

52 minutes South

I (Gris) was the third to share an album. Thinking about a road trip to the south inevitably led me to Selena, my childhood idol who accompanied me on my journeys back to Mexico after visiting my family in Texas. Selena —daughter of a Mexican father and a cherokee mother—was a pioneer of Tex-Mex, a musical genre that carries a hyphen in the middle, like the Rio Bravo that divides us. Selena’s last live performance was recorded in 1994 in Houston, a city where she always added “Mexico” every time she greeted the audience: “Thanks to our brothers from Houston, Texas-Mexico.” The mountains of Montserrat appeared to the rhythm of La Carcacha and Como la Flor, a landscape reminiscent of when the Cerro de la Silla would come into view as I arrived in Monterrey.

There are also albums that are landscapes.

Omega, Enrique Morente

Progressive rock and flamenco on our way back to Sant Cugat

60 minutes East

The final leg of the journey was to the east. Laura shared her choice: "Omega", an album by Enrique Morente that blends two musical styles she has always wanted to fuse—progressive rock and flamenco. Laura described the album as "dark" due to the melancholy of its songs and the intensity of its sounds, which fit perfectly for traversing the tunnels of the highway, accompanied by the electric guitar and Morente's deep singing.

We felt goosebumps listening to Poema para los muertos (A Poem for the Dead), his voice stretching his breath as much as possible in a journey that was coming to an end.

Gallery

Pep y la moneda
Capacity, Big Thief
Rumbo al oeste
Tomorrow Morning, Eels
Rumbo al sur
Live: The last concert, Selena
Rumbo al este
Omega, Enrique Morente
La ruta
Todxs
Pep y la moneda
Capacity, Big Thief
Rumbo al oeste
Tomorrow Morning, Eels
Rumbo al sur
Live: The last concert, Selena
Rumbo al este
Omega, Enrique Morente
La ruta
Todxs

Images of the road trip.

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Laura Llaneli

Who curated this playlist?

Laura Llaneli
(Granada, 1986) Lives and works in Barcelona. Her work explores the relationship between sound production and experience, language and contemporary visual arts practices. She emphasizes the impact of variations on stable patterns and structures in certain cultural products, testing the resistance of language as a code or sound as a social icon.

https://laurallaneli.com/

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