The Me_Mmix Festival continued its run through Palma yesterday at the Teatre Principal, this time with a performance that brought together film and music. It also welcomed the visit of the renowned French composer Yann Robin, who is driving the project led by Martín Matalón focused on the cinema of Buster Keaton. Robin, invited by the festival’s artistic director, Mateu Malondra, said he was “very happy” and “very proud” of this initiative in which the Argentine composer Matalón focused on setting music to three films by the American filmmaker, a key figure of silent cinema.
Robin explains that “Matalón is the ideal man” for this idea, which featured the ensemble Multilaterale, curated by Robin, who is, precisely, its artistic director. This type of film-concert included the screening of three Keaton films to which the Argentine composer adds music, adapting it to the audiovisual structure of these 20-minute shorts divided into two 10-minute parts.
According to Robin, it is a format that has the advantage and ability to “attract a large audience,” who attend either because of the film aspect, the musical aspect, or both, but who stay precisely because of the overall experience.
Robin also describes Matalón’s compositions as “complex, but so fantastic” that the audience does not perceive the complexity, but can simply enjoy the performance. The event also featured Valeria Montiel, who performed on flute the piece Nebbia Etérea by Haitam Bouzrati, a young composer born in Tangier and raised in Maó. Meanwhile, Josep Francesc Palou also performed Debussy’s Syrinx on flute.
It was, so to speak, a great opportunity to enjoy contemporary music alongside classic cinema and to bring both into a theatre—an ideal occasion that Robin greatly celebrated. He explained that he was very “happy to be here” and noted that he loves working with Spanish artists and festivals because “people get very involved, and I love that, because it allows bridges to be built between France and Spain.”
The festival continues over the coming days with a packed schedule that brings various musical formats and other cultural offerings to the city.
