ENRIQUE MORENTE IN CONCERT

"At any given moment, our contradictions and nostalgia depend on which way the wind is blowing. And so, 'cante' grows with every coming year, as new artists are born who continue to enrich it as long as they live and are always constantly reinventing everything".

Enrique Morente

In every time period, each artist has a different approach to finding his own means of expression. Yet all artists look back to those who came before with respect.

From the start, non-conformity and loyalty to the fundamental codes of flamenco singing formed the basis of his performing career. Morente's artistic pursuits drove him to take on challenges far beyond flamenco singing, as a producer, director and actor. Enrique Morente's career is dominated by his strict self-discipline and his thoroughly conscientious professionalism and dignity at the service of cante (flamenco singing).

Morente claims to love orthodoxy, a basic tenet of flamenco that should, nevertheless, help flamenco to evolve and to explore new musical avenues: "Because flamenco is an art form that is alive and constantly in motion. If it weren't alive, it never would have expanded beyond the cave dwellings... or the countryside. Flamenco is associated with clichés, dogmas, and misunderstandings that won't let the ears listen freely when, in order to understand flamenco, all you have to do is to be receptive and listen."

Morente has repeated words similar to these throughout his career, as he has long been the victim of a sort of witch-hunt against him and has often had to defend himself with these sorts of interventions. Today he is undoubtedly the most influential person in the professional flamenco world.

Morente finds it boring to sing the same repertoire over and over again. That is why he wrings every last drop of wisdom out of the concept of orthodoxy in order to find inspiration and develop new works of art. From the early days of his career, Enrique Morente's talent has drawn the attention of critics and scholars. He is very interested in understanding and performing the most complex cantes (flamenco songs). That combined with his wish to become, "a wide-ranging cantaor, without any distinct school or region," have led him to create a unique personality that leaves little room for clichés. The key, for Morente, is sincere and honest work, using both the heart and the head, in a delicate balance that is palpable in every one of his works.