Zan Hoffman in Spain

Zanstones "O Segredo de San Felipe" + Thr3hold (visuales) 2

2010-08-04T12:45:00.000-07:00

Zan Hoffman 2010 Tourbits 2

2010-07-30T09:46:00.000-07:00

11.19.08 Madrid

2009-01-14T13:33:00.001-08:00

I've been in Madrid in 78, 93, 00, 07 and now 08. Every time it's different and each time I'm getting to like it a little more. It's complex in a way not spoken about.
Park Retiro is my best friend in the whole wide city. Spent the day getting lost, but seeing things I remember from each different visit & then I did a fun show at Basico that evening.

11.20.08 Vigo

2009-01-14T13:27:00.000-08:00

A spritely five hour jaunt from Madrid, Vigo was unexpectedly hilly and quite a picturesque piece of work! Durán Vázquez was host of hosts with his great tour of downtown by foot as the evening approached. I had the best dessert of the tour here.

11.21.08 Santiago de Compostela

2009-01-14T13:20:00.001-08:00

On route from Vigo to A Coruña I found it crucial to make a stop at Santiago de Compostela & of course it was worth my time.

11.21.08 A Coruña

2009-01-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

A Coruña was a blast! After the best show I've ever done I was followed around town later that evening with calls of "KentucKEEEE"!

I was waiting for Alejandro and Antia the next morning at my car and noticed I had parked in front of a second hand store which was open, my luck! It was there I found the green and white Horner melodica you see me with on the rest of this tour. The best twenty euros I spent on the whole tour!

11.22.08 Fragas do Eume

2009-01-14T13:03:00.000-08:00

En route to Ferrol we visited the Fragas do Eume park and followed the windy road by the steam that led to a 11th century monestary. I was dumbfounded by the lush beauty.

11.22.08 Ferrol

2009-01-14T12:56:00.000-08:00

My host Alejandro and his girlfriend Antia were so gracious and showed me such a fantastic time that I have nothing but lovely memories of Ferrol.

11.23.08 Cabo Ortegal

2009-01-13T13:21:00.000-08:00

The northern most tip of Spain was a mere 40 minute drive north from Ferrol, so Alejandro, Antia and I all got to visit it for the 1st time together. The tallest cliffs in Europe besides the fjords of Norway are here. Windy, powerfully picturesque and Anita noticed a group of tiny sheep grazing off one of the most remote fringes leading into the ocean.

11.27.08 Frigiliana with Markus Breuss and Tsukiko Amakawa

2009-01-13T12:57:00.000-08:00

The most insane part of my Iberian road trip had to be the Porto -> Frigiliana to visit Markus Breuss. Sometimes you hit-it-off with someone online & quickly fall into a pattern based on a seemingly old and deep friendship. Thus it was my instant comradery with Markus Breuss. Plus knowing that he & Victor Nubla were old friends clued me in to the fact I was dealing with someone special.

It took me forever to leave Porto and by 12:30 Portugese time [1:30 .es time] I was on the road to Sagres at the southwestern tip of Portugal. I high-tailed it down there hoping to catch it at sunset, but missed my deadline by 20 mintues or so, sadly. After an encouter with the surf and sand, and a melodica song up and down a fishing pier I was off to Seville for dinner.

I found a student-age neighbourhood to find, amusingly enough, Tex-Mex/Pizza joint where I had a lovely Spanish take on tex-mex. My advice for leaving town was finding the river and heading south. Easy enough. So I called Markus up & asked him if it was OK that I came to visit him tonight even though I'd arrive late. No problem, says he and he gives me directions to his town, sadly not mentioning the more popular seaside town that would appear on roadsigns, nor to take the Malaga bypass.

I got massively and thoroughly lost in old town Seville with powerfully narrow streets (had to back up 4 blocks out of a ultranarrow dead end at one point), got stuck behind a garbage truck & proceeded to needlessly add a hour to my journey. Stopping through Malaga at night was nice but added another half hour & actually finding Markus' apartment, another half hour making it nearly 4am by the time I arrived.

And much to my surprise and delight both Markus & Tsukiko were awake and active and we stayed up for a few hours talking, Markus trying (and occasionally failing) to restrain himself from playing muted horn. I stayed the nite at my own property that he house-sits for his sister & her ex-bodyfriend. The photos of Frigiliana and this trip are the only ones missing in my collection. So I've procured a photo from the web which captures what it looks like outside Markus' window toward Nerja on the Med.

The recordings the three of us made the next day are documented in the release: Zanstones 141 And I Went To Frigiliana With A Banjo On My Knee.

Leaving Frigiliana, Spain from Zan Hoffman on Vimeo.

11.27.08 Bodycocktail in Cordoba

2008-12-10T18:25:00.001-08:00

The layout of the bar made it hard to concentrate a show & the sound system left something to be desired but I did a fun show in Cordoba at a new wave club. There was a lp cover collage on one wall that featured the 1st Slint LP, the Louisville act featuring my friend Britt... that cracked me up. Very friendly people and quite a cute club. David who got us the gig did a DJ set afterwards.

11.28.08 10 minutes at a subsitute venue with seven friends in the audience

2008-12-10T18:19:00.000-08:00

An amp dragged from one bar to the next, parking drama and then off to do recordings for a show. Tight deadline. AA batteries in the pinch supplied by David. Out in the street corner and under slight overhang at apartment entrance to be out of the rain recording minimal melodica drones. Low to high. Back the bar dubbing to 4 track at half speed and back into the street to record the second section. Repeat. The best I can do under 10pm deadline is a 10 minute show. And true to form I'm getting the "cut" notice from Enrique as the seconds count down to 10.
I later expand on this recording at Enriques apartment and use it for bed of Sunday night's show (see below).

12.29.08 Bodycocktail + En Busca Del Pasto & Zanstones at Casa los Jacintos in Madrid

2008-12-10T18:09:00.001-08:00

Back at Casa los Jacintos where dnasnow/mouseup played last year. This time I get to play with En Busca del Pasto (in search of a pasture) friends from myspace who showed great interest in doing a show with me.
I started the show with a solo Bodycocktail set with songs + voice & occasional melodica. Then a wonderful and introspective rarely noisy collaboration with the full En Busca - at the end someone in the audience yelled "PASTO".
We were informed that there was still 20 minutes we could play and I was able to eek a few songs from the iPod with dying battery and did a Bodycocktail encore set.

11.30.08 Zanstones with En Busca Del Pasto at Basico in Madrid

2008-12-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

My final concert on tour was at Basico, where I started my tour 11 days previous. Some of the same people glad to see me plus a few of the Busca Pasto friends. I was on last of 4 & so I used my finished recording from the aborted Zanstones show two days previous as a bed for En Busca Del Pasto to improvise with and I wandered the audience quietly playing people unique chords on my melodica bought a week earlier in A Coruna.

11.31.08 Segovia

2008-12-04T03:17:00.000-08:00

Juan Antonio and Almudina treated Minuit and myself to the most wonderful tour of Segovia in the mountains north of Madrid with a Roman aquaduct and 13 century churches. Not to mention the little pig.

dnasnow/mouse + bodycocktail + zanstones 2007

2008-07-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

In late November 2007 Carol and I went to Spain as I met up for a 7th year reunion with Rinus Van Albeek to do a dnasnow/mouseup tour plus some solo shows alternately as Bodycocktail and Zanstones.

We played our 1st dnasnow/mouseup show in Madrid at Casa de Los Jacintos.
The next afternoon after a quick drive to Bilbao we played the Museum of Artistic Reproductions in a lovely intense and sparsely attended set.

That night I played a really funny set in the costal town Gexto, outside of Bilbao. This was at a youth art exhibit Gexto Arte & it featured the wonderous addition of the Bodycocktail 4 dancers!

The next day featured two more shows in San Sebastion / Donesti.
I spent the afternoon scouring the holes of Donesti for sounds...

The Zanstones show at Magumbo was followed by a great set by Gora Japon
and a lights-out set by dnasnow/mouseup.
We spent a day and change in Barcelona before going to do our last show in Valencia.

It was the last, longest and most involved dnasnow/mouseup show to date.
Rinus, who we had met in Madrid left the next day as we left for our visit to the costal town of Calpe.

We left in the early evening on a drive to the marvelous historic Toledo.

We spent the next day exploring it & then off to Madrid which was a short hour away. The modern art museum Rene Sophia was a great treat and after a strange moment where I couldn't figure out any contact information or data on that evenings' show, there was a strange but much enjoyed Bodycocktail show, followed by fine dining with friends.