Half future
John Cale came to Barcelona in late May, accompanied by a wonderful band and the BCN216 orchestra in order to present live his new show When the Past & Future Collide: Paris 1919. Paris in Barcelona and Cale in our dreams coming true as the white heat flowing from the heart of a white light shelling, stretching, dying in the shade or looking for new ways in new retinas. The chromatic prism sat on his keyboard to create a vital four-hand pizzicato.
Composer, producer and songwriter born in Wales, founded with Lou Reed the influential band The Velvet Underground when they met in 1964 in New York, where Cale was studying classical music, and counting with Sterling Morrison, Maureen "Moe" Tucker and Doug Yule. That name was taken from the sadomasochism book The Velvet Underground by Michael Leigh which a friend had found on the street. Later, Paul Morrissey convinced Andy Warhol of the convenience of having a rock band at The Factory, so they went to see them live and Warhol eventually became their manager. Their sound full of distortions, lyrics coming into sadomasochism, heroin, transvestism and a dark look in leather outfit, turned them in a stark contrast to the prevailing floating hippy psychedelia.
But John Cale soon began discrepancies with Lou Reed and he decided to leave the band in 1968 after the publication of the legendary album White Light / White Heat (1968). After that he began working as a producer and studio musician working with artists like Nico and Nick Drake. Finally he released his first solo album, Vintage Violence (1970), a simple job for him in his own words. From there, a prolific career with intermittent encounters with his former partner Lou Reed.
In Barcelona he presented a live version of his Paris 1919 (1973), album originally produced by legendary Beatles sound engineer Chris Thomas. A work of nearly forty years of age which was born dark, filled with strings and ballads, marking the creative impulse of John Cale from the avant-garde to rock, prolific, sorrowful, full of black humor and smoky pianos. It’s a key piece of contemporary music which in the Forum Auditorium didn’t leave any mind outside. His art is wind and rain and the concert was an animated movement from an album that seemed born at that moment. The endless plain of fortune.
Text by Juan Carlos Romero
Photos courtesy of Primavera Sound, second photo by Dani Canto