Few musicians can, at 33, show a record of 23 albums as a solo artist, and 45 as a sideman. In the case of the pianist and composer Marco Mezquida (Mahón, 1987), all this has meant the sowing that led to this harvest: the eleven songs that shape Talismán, his most personal work to date. An album that, as its name suggests stands for a sort of amulet in which different eras, styles and sounds converge, making it a fetish and a providential catalyst for Iberian music.

Like an alchemist, Marco Mezquida integrates into his potion of sounds the spirit of Masters of the Iberian Classical music such as Granados, Turina or Albéniz, that of the romantics Liszt, Chopin or Ravel, and builds bridges with popular and folk music through references as Eliseo Parra or Coetus, or with the contemporary and sophisticated of a giant like Keith Jarrett.

It is the basic combination of all these elements and identities, where the classic and the contemporary, the traditional and the modern, jazz and song coexist; what defines the unique and personal sound of Marco Mezquida, and is reflected in his most vital, bright and Mediterranean album. In a global age, where there is no place for labels or corsets, Mezquida conveys himself naturally and freely.

Talismán, as a work, as well consolidates the maturing process of a line-up that originated in a commissioned project -Ravel’s dreams- and that has ended up becoming a beacon of artistic identity for Marco. With the inventiveness and originality of the versatile Aleix Tobías on percussions, and the imagination and intensity of the prodigious Martín Meléndez on the cello, Marco creates a weave made of complicities, a trio sound as original as unique.

For all this, and many other details that can only be appreciated through careful listening, Talismán is one of those works that establish a landmark in the career of any artist. And when it comes to a musician with all the future ahead of him, what Marco Mezquida delivers is certainly encouraging.