The idea for the album Fantasia Iberica came after one of many trips of the performer, Maciej Staszewski, a guitar player and composer, around the Iberian Peninsula. The album was inspired by the local culture, architecture, contemporary guitar music rooted in the Iberian tradition, and two guitars (6 and 10-string), which have been built for Staszewski in the recent years in Amalio Bourget’s luthier’s workshops in Valencia. Paraphrasing Joan Manen’s dedication, one could say that the pieces on the album are live music not written for the “drawer” but for particular performers, often in collaboration with them and thanks to their performance hints. The scores recorded on the album Fantasia Iberica cannot be found on the shelf labeled avant-garde, but who would think about revolutionizing the guitar’s sound, since it is irreplaceable in harmonics that echo within the walls of the Alcazar, in passages resembling paths of Spanish air, in rhythms of the sensual solea?
