CaboSanRoque is a musical/artistic collective brought to life by industrial engineer Laia Torrents and architect Roger Aixut. La cobla patafísica 2015-2001 is the first monograph to be published from their work. Inspired by pataphysics, CaboSanRoque’s work was developed around the construction of musical instruments and the exploration of their capacity for expression, in a process of continual research into the genesis of sounds through mechanics and automatisms.

Edited by Moisés Puente, and with text by Víctor Nubla, Pablo Martín Sánchez and an interview helmed by Pierre Bastien, the book features an exhaustive inventory of all the sounds produced by CaboSanRoque, photographed by Inga Knölke in a purpose-built studio. La cobla patafísica 2015-2001 includes, inside the front cover, two large posters featuring the last 15 years’ of the collective’s work in its entirety.

What exactly is CaboSanRoque? (or better still, what does CaboSanRoque do, exactly?). For those who have followed them for years, the immediate answer would be: CaboSanRoque is a band—with a membership that varies—that has been performing for fourteen years on stage, has recorded six albums and plays live regularly. For those who have only discovered them recently, CaboSanRoque are performers who use various objects to create different shows, in which they are sometimes accompanied by other artists such as Carles Santos, Pascal Comelade and Pierre Bastien. And finally, for those who look at the artefacts they produce without thinking too much about their albums or concerts, and think exclusively about the sounds coming out of their machines, what CaboSanRoque produce could be considered works of art.

However, you could add one more thing: CaboSanRoque are collectors of (pataphysical) sound collectors. Their machines and shows produce new sounds that, like the collections of centuries gone by, oscillate between rarity and beauty, erudition and curiosity, all of which is condensed into their peculiar collector’s cabinet. Collecting sounds means understanding the multiplicity of the aural world, finding a hidden meaning and, on a personal level, fathoming the wonderful magnitude lying behind each new discovery.

— Moisés Puente

Cabo San Roque

www.cabosanroque.com

CaboSanRoque was founded in 2001 as a musical collective named after an old ocean liner. Its current members are Laia Torrents (Barcelona, 1976), an industrial engineer, and Roger Aixut (Barcelona, 1975), an architect. Its other members during its fourteen-year history have been Pepe Segui, Ramon Garriga, Alberto Mezquíriz, Núria Carrera, Carles Martínez-Almoyna, Josep Maria Fita, Oriol Luna and Guiu Llusà. CaboSanRoque has collaborated with the artists Pierre Bastien, Vinicio Capossela, Pascal Comelade, Carles Santos, Frederic Amat, Za! and Joan Saura.

Technical Data