We hear a lot of artists coming out of Barcelona but we rarely hear anything from them in catalán. That’s a shame because, even though I don’t understand the language very well, it has a beautiful musicality that pairs perfectly with the dreamy indie-pop sounds of Catalonian band Manuela Kant.
Manuela Kant are surrounded by a shroud of mystery. As the story goes, they were inspired by a tale told by their grandmothers about a photograph taken by an immigrant woman in Barcelona. She was displaced by war and forged a new identity in the city. Since she hailed from philosopher Immanuel Kant’s birthplace, Königsberg in former Prussia, she took his last name and Manuela Kant was born.
The story only gets more complicated from there, but I think their music speaks more for them than any biography could. Their first song, “El so del cim,” which roughly translates to “the sound of the peak,” plays like a quixotic journey through the mountains, complete with a beautiful Spanish guitar underscored by soft percussion and synths that progressively build up to heighten the mood.