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ENTERTAINMENT

‘Lost, tossed and forgotten’ in Sweden

An American magazine dedicated to salvaging “the best lost, tossed and forgotten items from around the world” is about to bring its acclaimed live show to Sweden, writes Jennifer Heape.

Published: 23 October 2008 12:12 CEST
'Lost, tossed and forgotten' in Sweden

Found Magazine, the brainchild of Davy Rothbart and his brother Peter, is a truly dangerous thing.

Many hours of a perfectly innocent working day can be lost to their intriguing and utterly addictive website, which is dedicated to collecting anything that is, well, found.

This autumn, Found has decided to bring its highly acclaimed live show across the pond to Europe and at the end of October the tour is debuting in Sweden. As Davy explains:

“We have had many finds over the years from Sweden, but we would like more. The point of the tour is to introduce Found to people who might not know about it.”

Indeed, the project hinges on the involvement of the public: “Our readership is very important,” says Davy.

“I think of Found as a gigantic collaborative artwork. We need people to participate in order for it to work.”

The 90 minute show will be hitting venues in Malmö, Gothenburg and Stockholm and promises to be a very original spectacle.

“Found is a collection of notes, photos, letters, to-do lists, love letters – any scrap of something that shows a glimpse of someone else’s life,” says Davy.

“The items are found everywhere; the street, alleys, prison yards, bowling alleys, even in the ocean.”

In speaking to Davy, it is clear that he holds a real delight in compiling the collection.

“It’s such a treat to find things, it’s great to go out to our mail box every day,” he gushes.

Davy helps to explain why the found objects make such compelling reading.

“You can relate to the items found, you can see yourself in them.”

Furthermore the pieces sent in are “universal, a fragment of a much wider story. They are riddles, puzzles, mysteries – it’s up to the reader to try and interpret them.”

Many of the objects are just plain funny, but there are also items that are touching and often very personal. So is Found just intrusive voyeurism?

“Yes, I guess it could be seen as voyeuristic, but I think a certain amount of voyeurism is healthy,” says Davy.

“Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I go around peering into people’s windows or anything like that! We are surrounded by strangers all the time; it’s natural to be curious. We want to see other people’s experiences of being human.”

Some of the finds are deeply touching, as Davy remarks when explaining one of the most memorable items for him that has been sent in over the years:

“It was a letter someone wrote to their Mom, explaining how they have finally found love and are happy. You get the impression that maybe this person’s Mom is either away or not here anymore.

“It was found attached to a balloon which had got caught on a tree in a cemetery. It was just so beautiful and profound I literally started crying over this note.”

The Found team, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has 100 to 200 items sent in to them every week, and while some items do arrive from Europe, the majority are American.

At the shows, Davy gets up on stage with a stack of his favourite Found notes and letters and gives them an energetic reading. His brother plays songs that he has written based on Found notes.

As Davy confesses, while reading out the finds, he “tends to get a little rowdy and carried away”.

The Found show also features 19-year-old, sword swallowing, fire-breathing extravaganza, Brett Loudermilk.

“We found him in this back-water type little town in West Virginia and we just thought he was amazing. So he’s with us on the tour too,” says Davy.

The Found Magazine European Tour will be in Sweden on the following dates:

Malmö: October 29th

På Besök, Nobelvägen 73,

Tel: 040-85700

[email protected]

Gothenburg: October 30th

8pm @ Cafe Publik, Andralånggatan 20.

Tel: 031-146520

Stockholm: November 1st (NB: This is the correct date, not October 31st as previously announced)

8pm @ Dramalabbet, Östgötagatan 2.

Tel: 08-309122

www.dramalabbet.com

Photo Gallery

From the live show (Warning – strong language):

MUSIC

Meet the Spanish rapper bringing flamenco and bossa nova into hip-hop

Spanish rapper C. Tangana was taking a big risk when he started mixing old-fashioned influences like flamenco and bossa nova into his hip-hop -- but it's this eclectic sound that has turned him into a phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.

Published: 23 May 2021 08:38 CEST
Meet the Spanish rapper bringing flamenco and bossa nova into hip-hop
Spanish rapper Anton Alvarez known as 'C. Tangana' poses in Madrid on April 29, 2021. Photo: Javier Soriano/AFP

The 30-year-old has emerged as one of the world’s biggest Spanish-language stars since his third album “El Madrileno” — the Madrilenian — came out in February. That ranks him alongside his superstar ex-girlfriend Rosalia, the Grammy-winning Catalan singer with whom he has co-written several hits.

C. Tangana, whose real name is Anton Alvarez Alfaro, has come a long way since a decade ago when he became known as a voice of disillusioned Spanish youth in the wake of the financial crisis.These days his rap is infused with everything from reggaeton and rumba to deeply traditional styles from Spain and Latin America, with a voice often digitised by autotune.

“It’s incredible that just when my music is at its most popular is exactly when I’m doing something a bit more complex, more experimental and less
trendy,” he told AFP in an interview.

And he is unashamed to be appealing to a wider audience than previously: his dream is now to make music “that a young person can enjoy in a club or someone older can enjoy at home while cooking”.

‘People are tired’

The rapper, who sports a severe semi-shaved haircut and a pencil moustache, has worked with Spanish flamenco greats including Nino De Elche, Antonio Carmona, Kiko Veneno, La Hungara and the Gipsy Kings.

In April he brought some of them together for a performance on NPR’s popular “Tiny Desk Concert” series, which has already drawn nearly six million
views on YouTube.

Shifting away from trap, one of rap’s most popular sub-genres, and venturing into a more traditional repertoire was a dangerous move — especially for someone with a young fanbase to whom rumba, bossa nova and bolero sound old-fashioned.

“I think people are tired. They’ve had enough of the predominant aesthetic values that have previously defined pop and urban music,” he said.

Parts of his latest album were recorded in Latin America with Cuban guitarist Eliades Ochoa of Buena Vista Social Club, Uruguayan
singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler, Mexican folk artist Ed Maverick and Brazil’s Toquinho, one of the bossa nova greats.

“What struck me most everywhere I went was the sense of tradition and the way people experienced the most popular music, and I don’t mean pop,” he said.

A new direction

C. Tangana started out in 2006 rapping under the name Crema. When the global economic crisis swept Spain a few years later, hard-hitting trap was
the perfect way to voice the angst of his generation. But after more than a decade of rapping, things changed.

“When I was heading for my 30s, I hit this crisis, I was a bit fed up with what I was doing… and decided to give voice to all these influences that I
never dared express as a rapper,” he said.

The shift began in 2018 with “Un veneno” (“A poison”) which came out a year after his big hit “Mala mujer” (“Bad woman”).

And there was a return to the sounds of his childhood when he used to listen to Spanish folk songs at home, raised by a mother who worked in
education and a journalist father who liked to play the guitar. The Latin American influences came later.

“It started when I was a teenager with reggaeton and with bachata which were played in the first clubs I went to, which were mostly Latin,” he said.

Studying philosophy at the time, he wrote his first raps between stints working in call centres or fast-food restaurants.

As to what comes next, he doesn’t know. But one thing he hopes to do is collaborate with Natalia Lafourcade, a Mexican singer who dabbles in folk, rock and pop — another jack of all musical trades.

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