Canterbury 2.8 – Magick Brother Mystic Sister

Magick Brother Mystic Sister are a project from Barcelona in Spain who by monicker alone should immediately attract your attention. Sharing a name with the first ever Gong album, they’ve managed to maintain, in between producing 2 very fine albums to date (with a third imminent) a certain mystery to both their music and their origins: videos online often mask identities, often through use of external video footage or simply through the blurring of images. Is there a connection to Gong? How long have they been in existence? How are they perceived in homeland Catalonia? Whilst some of that mystique undoubtedly will remain, hopefully what lies within the 8^th interview in the Canterbury 2.0 series will at least give some insight into this very fine band.

After some initial contact with the band when they released their brilliant first album ‘Magick Brother Mystic Sister’, I recently reconnected with the band’s two main protagonists: Eva Muntada (keyboards/vocals) and Xavi Sandoval (bass/guitar) and asked, as I always do, of their own musical origins. I got a suitably cryptic response:

Eva: That would lead us to write a book and for now it would be better if our music told the story…

Xavi: We have always felt connected to music, it is almost part of us, then over time there have been many projects in which you learn, where you try, you succeed. or you’re wrong… Until you find your way, and it is during that process that you develop as a musician. For our part, this is the music that counts now, it is the one we managed to publish and show abroad, so we will continue with more!

However, previous correspondence with Eva back in May 2020 at the time of the release of their first album had at least revealed an active interest in music covered in these pages, stretching back to two Canterbury Sound festivals in the very early 2000s, and goes a long way to explaining the myriad of familiar styles which cropped up on their first album: a whole range of Canterbury keyboard sounds, fuzz bass, bossa nova rhythms, flute and even glissando guitar. Eva and Xavi, the constants in the Magick Brother Mystic Sister continuum, take up the story:

Eva: The first (Canterbury Sound) festival was in 2000, we already knew many of the groups that played and that’s why we went. We were already fans and the lineup was irresistible, so we took a plane from Barcelona to London and then a train to a hill near Canterbury.

The concert was held in a huge English garden surrounded by fields of fruit trees and statues…the atmosphere could not have been better…

Just as we arrived in the morning, Arthur Brown began to compere the show and he started singing some songs from Crazy World of… to the audience and we were immediately amazed.

There weren’t too many people, we think it was the first edition. The rest of the lineup was Gong, Caravan, Man and Colosseum. We saw Caravan later on another occasion, once when they played in Spain.

We didn’t know Colosseum at this point, although we recognised the singer Chris Farlowe and it was an incredible concert along with Man’s, and when we returned to Barcelona we bought the Colosseum albums.

The festival closed with Caravan playing songs from ‘In the land of grey and pink’. We remember that the music sounded like the record, ‘Nine Feet Underground’ sounded incredible in that environment.

The Gong performance was fantastic. They wore their space-glam outfits…, Gilli in a blue dress and a silver cape representing the spirit of Selene. The atmosphere at the festival was very relaxed, totally natural, so we went to thank them for their music, to have them sign our records … We were able to speak to Daevid Allen – he was surprised that we had travelled here, a young couple from Barcelona. He told us, “you come from Barcelona to listen to this music, you are crazy but we love crazy people, we are all crazy!”. At that time we longed to have a band ourselves and it was something of a  pilgrimage, a great opportunity to see these great masters and learn a little.

There was another edition in 2002 (by which time it had been rebranded as the Canterbury Fayre), it was much bigger and had fenced areas and lasted 3 days. This time we went with friends from Barcelona in a Volkswagen van emulating the hippie dream.

We met a lot of interesting people, the lineup was already spectacular with bands from other styles as well… Pretty Things, Electric Prunes, Arthur Lee & Love, Jack Bruce, Nick Turner’s Space Ritual, Kevin Ayers, Ozric Tentacles, The Stranglers, Man, Arthur Brown, they were all fantastic with memorable moments, but the one that impressed us the most was the 21st Century Schizoid band, the line-up from King Crimson’s first album (minus Robert Fripp). We will always remember Ian Mc Donald’s flute solos on ‘Epitaph’ or ‘I Talk to the Wind’. Listening to all those songs was going beyond the pale…

The couple would renew their acquaintance with Daevid Allen a few years later in an unexpected manner, revealed further on in this feature, but we moved on to talk about the duo’s own music, starting with their own musical backgrounds:

Xavi: our training is somewhere between classical and self-taught. At home we listened to some pretty good music, my father liked rock and roll and flamenco so I grew up listening to the classics Elvis, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, etc. and then Paco de Lucia…

Eva: In my childhood at my grandparents’ house we listened to classical music, Bach, Mozart, Albinoni, Debussy and I played the piano they had there. And with my parents we always listened to rock music: Neil Young, Magna Carta, Supertramp, Mike Oldfield and many more… then I also tried to play that music on the piano when my grandparents were not there… Those moments have always stayed with me.

I asked about their choice of the name Magick Brother Mystic Sister

Eva: To choose a name was very difficult. At the time the band consisted of two couples (Eva and Xavi, but also flautist Maya Fernandez and drummer Marc Tena) and reflecting the inspirational effect of Gong on myself and Xavi, we decided on this name. We are aware we are not like Gong band but we love their spirit.

We  discovered that Magick Brother Mystic Sister suits us (although the name is a little long!) because it describes our music and our interests in magic and mysticism quite well, and on the other hand we are big fans of Gong and it is the title of their first album. Also, we wanted a name that contained two genders or complementary duality that would transmit that magical union that sometimes occurs between people.

I asked if Gong had given its blessing for use of the name

Xavi: No, because I think Daevid died before we released the album.

In reality the nature of the music displayed on the band’s brilliant first album takes influences from many more sources than just Gong. As I wrote in my review at the time in 2020 ‘the band they bear most resemblance to is probably Caravan circa ‘If I Could Do It All Over Again’, courtesy of a deliciously dated Sixties vibe, flute solos to die for and bossanova-flecked rhythms…’ The band also acknowledge influences from Ash Ra Tempel and Popol Vuh in particular.

Eva: We’ve always had a special connection to the Canterbury sound and when we started playing in a quartet format we turned to that spirit. This mix of jazz rock with flute, typical of the Canterbury sound, came naturally.

Xavi: The compositions were mainly from Eva and I, but we all participated because although many times the starting point was the bass lines, it was the improvisation that led us to choose the most interesting arrangements, to then polish the details for a while…

Eva: Actually we had been together since 2013. Songs like ‘Les Vampires’, ‘Instructions for Judgement Visions’, ‘Utopia’ or ‘Yogi Tea’ are originally that old. We recorded the album between 2016 and 2017 mostly, and some parts at the end of 2018. There were  many songs that remained unreleased.

Xavi: We started with keyboard arrangements from which we improvised until we found a good bass and drum base, so that the mellotron and flute could then flow in.

Eva: Normally  we played bass, drums, keyboards and flute initially and added the guitars at the recording.

Maya (joined us) on flute for Xavi’s original idea of putting music to the Tarot and she brought her partner Marc, an old friend music producer and jazz lover. We loved doing versions of Soft Machine, Skin Alley and Jethro Tull in concert,  and really enjoyed making improvisations with them. Playing in a group opened up new possibilities and the album was part of the result.

We recorded it at home. We live near the Park Güell in Barcelona where we have a cabin with a recording homestudio. From our studio we can see the amusement park and the Tibidabo mountain (The magic mountain of Barcelona). It’s a very inspiring sight.

In Part 2 of this feature, Eva and Xavi go on to talk about their latest album Tarot 1, tell the story behind their part in the unearthing of a long lost Gong video from 1973, and talk in more depth about their love for Canterbury music.

The band’s debut album can be listened to and purchased here: https://magicbrothermysticsister.bandcamp.com/album/magick-brother-mystic-sister-2

Tarot 1 is available here: https://magicbrothermysticsister.bandcamp.com/album/tarot-part-i and here https://www.soundeffect-records.gr/tarot-pt-i

Watch Magick Brother Mystic Sister videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8I5vUBFWFX6wh0Q0cXPNdg

For other interviews in the Canterbury 2.0 series, please click here