Pelax’s members have entered strongly on the first day of the course. Iñigo Irazoki is the studio technician, and on this occasion they will also record in analogue. Irazoki tells you the computer: “That’s all you have to see is going well. The recording doesn’t happen there.” You will be recorded live on the tape, “as before”. If one of the four musicians made a mistake, the whole song would have to be repeated.

And why do they want to do so in this way, taking into account the facilities currently offered by digital recording? Pelayo has the clear answer: “Rock has to be recorded like this, together. If not, it makes no sense [has been silent]. Rock and anything, the truth.”

The concentration and atmosphere in the group are magnificent. The previous days have been in the studio taking sounds. Iker Vázquez has tested the four batteries installed at different points in the room, and has finally chosen the one they least expected. They have done the same with the other instruments and amplifiers.

The group recorded their first song on St. Fermin's Eve and they've all heard the song together. "All right! they all screamed ... “But we can improve it!” They laugh like it's a challenge. They have internalized that it's not so much to touch, to listen, to listen, to laugh at mistakes. “Engraved in this way we do not achieve perfection, but register feelings that cannot be achieved otherwise”.

Two 20-minute songs

The idea of double disc, in the end, has been put in a different way. They have been released into progressive rock, creating a record of almost 40 minutes duration, with two tracks that have barely been interrupted. It's not common for Pelax's music to have songs as long as this one. But this is not a break from what has been done so far: although the forms have changed, the essence remains the same.

“The real change has been taking a place together,” Pelayo said. “We’ve taken hours to make it profitable for us. That is what has created a new trust among us: the others have followed the stone of one.”

Long improvisation sessions were held at the site and new ideas were developed. “We started listening to music together,” Pelayo said, and “that has also been decisive. We have set ourselves in the same musical direction.” “Especially with King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizzard!” cut Iñigo Ozaeta. The Australian group has published five albums in one year (long! ). He fired them, “that showed us that we could do anything.” And they've challenged it. “Are we able to compose a 20-minute song we like?”

Ozaeta also sees the difference: “Before we start to compose from a riff, we have agreed on what we are looking for. We go up intensity, we go down -- and we work with a graph through which we've been creating melodies." Vázquez adds reflection: “That has led us to have better communication between us, because understanding and knowing how to communicate sensations is not so easy.”

On the album Didaktika makes shocks that stated that “they became a group” and since then it is noted that they have made a big leap to this day. Everyone speaks of others with admiration and confidence. It's beautiful to see that, to feel like you're going to follow if you move the song from one place to another.

As for the album, they say that the first part of the face A is “quite a song.” But the A2 and B sides have been formed on two riffs. For Vázquez, “the beginning of the vinyl starts with the one that was Pelax and as it progresses it moves away from what it was. And that’s right, we’ve looked for it so you could see the evolution on the record.”

Yet they see it as a 2019 project. “It has not been a decision, we have not said ‘we will make progressive rock’; now we want to do this and it is already.” The second album will see the light before the end of the year, and it is expected to be “but crazier”.

Time to listen to music

There was a more central concept about these improvisation sessions at the venue: “Today we are fascinated by people’s customs to consume music. The whole records are no longer heard, the passion for discovering new things has come down.”

According to Pelayo, “immediacy prevails today”. “It’s consumed a lot with an image and that’s what music influences consumers. In the end, they get used to eating with an image. We're not used to moving in the brain to understand a song, committing ourselves to the group and its proposals. Therefore, behind the elaboration of this album there is an intention, a basic concept and that is that we are losing artistic sensitivity”. Andoni Olaetxea rounded off this idea: “We believe that we have to make an effort with art.”

“We want people to listen to this album as we hear it,” Pelayo continued. “I mean, if you want to hear the album, you’ll have to take 40 minutes and be there from start to finish. Isn't it a lot to ask? In our long week, 40 minutes of attention... besides, it is therapeutic!”.

Device not available

Barrio Egia de San Sebastián T.A.O. A few months ago he was filled with machines. One day he wrote on a ticket, to avoid the fine, that “the device is not available”, as the machine did not take him money. He thought: “What if, for example, all devices were damaged one day?”

Lately, it is common to listen to musicians – and to other artists, usually with less voice – complain that organisers are only planning profitable groups. Since profitability is provided by amateurs – the number of amateurs and their ability to buy – complaints go quickly to them: that people are costumbrist, that devours what they give them without a critical spirit... However, on the basis of the proposal made by the Pelax, another thought can be given. Haven't you been doing what most musicians are criticizing precisely? All the groups – the majority – looking for the Single “that people will like”, a spectacular music video, a dedicated work of “promo”, “quality content” on social networks… Have the musicians not thrown the stone to their roof, in that “people want what they give and give it what they want”, feeding the crazy wheel?

A double disc, unnamed, in a format that is essential to listen in full to listen to songs. Maybe you don't paint it on the radios. And you may not put it on Spotify's lists or in the party halls. But with this new work, created without a single concession, they will continue to awaken emotions and make us believe that things can change through music. At least in the listener willing to do so. Perhaps there is still hope.