Since 1994, Madrid-based Acuarela has grown to be one of the leading lights of the Spanish indie scene, releasing music by an eclectic array of daring artists in both English and Spanish, from both sides of the pond.
Aroah
Aroah is a young Spanish-American neo-folksinger with a beautiful voice and a deft musical touch. Her short, small songs are graceful, dreamy, plaintive, and quietly tough.
Bitter Springs
Bitter Springs is a little-known but outstanding U.K. quintet that's been around since the mid-'80s, originally as Last Party. They possess an idiosyncratic and engaging style of loose, punk-derived, folk-flavored pub rock that's sometimes reminiscent of the Pogues.
The Clientele
Definitely retro, definitely daydreaming music, both good things. London's The Clientele play slow, nostalgic, drowsy rock that bears traces of Television and any number of sweet 'n' sad '60s pop bands. Should appeal to Galaxie 500 enthusiasts.
Ian Crause
Former Disco Inferno frontman Ian Crause continues to solider on, his trusty sampler at his side, making anachronistic but delightful pop music.
for Stars
Think of the sweetest, most sensitive guy you know. Now, remove the sap quotient, give him a tender and evocative voice, and immerse him in a stew of southern California beaches and classic Neil Young albums. Mix in a band and you might have something half as good as for Stars.
Migala
It's hard to describe the avant-garde folk created by this Madrid sextet, it sounds so different from everything else. Suffice to say that it's nothing less than pure musical alchemy, mournful but warm, lush and deliciously strange.
Paloma
Paloma is a French singer-songwriter named Laurent Vassi?re who sculpts delightfully strange electro-pop creations and breathes a strange, sweet, alien life into them.
Piano Magic
Gossamer strands of melody glisten with speckles of rhythm and shades of melancholy. Serene and suspicious, Piano Magic's songs threaten to dissipate into the shadows before they can be carefully examined.
Refree
One of several bold and astonishing new artists to have emerged from Spain over the past few years, Refree finds beauty in the strangest of places, making lengthy, hypnotic, entrancing compositions that feel like a distant twice-removed descendant of traditional folk music.
Retsin
Retsin combine the naked sensitivity and intimacy of folk music with country sensibilities to paint gentle and sometimes playful watercolors of pensive melody and breathy whispers in the ear.
Spokane
Rick Alverson, the frontman of the plaintive Virginia band Drunk, goes solo with this sad, meditative, unconventionally beautiful project. Spokane's music is full of melancholy dirges and odes to dissatisfaction, yet it somehow finds a way to be uplifting, leaving you feeling oddly cleansed.
Vitesse
Vitesse is a stylishly melancholy Chicago-based duo with a deep-rooted nostalgia for the halcyon days of early '80s synth-pop. Cool and lovely minimalist electronic pop.
Viva Las Vegas
Viva Las Vegas is the side project of Frank Rudrow and Jose Luis Garcia, two members of the highly successful Spanish band Manta Ray. The duo has created a blissful sound that combines unhurried rhythm, myriad samples, and melodic guitar work.
The Zephyrs
This Edinburgh-based brothers duo combines the hypnotic bliss of dream pop and the floating beauty of country-rock in an almost shockingly lovely, graceful, and intimate style.
