Jolifanto is a collaborative debut album by ZA! and Perrate for Lovemonk Records – who create an electronic fusion under the influence of flamenco. Jolifanto, takes its name from the first verse of Karawane – a seminal Dadaist phonetic poem by Hugo Ball, first recited at the Cabaret Voltaire, in 1916. Ball became entranced and required assistance off the stage exhausted.

And in that Dadaist spirit is the formation of this album, sometimes improvised, sometimes meticulously planned and propelled by polyrhythmic exploration.

Perrate is the descendant of a celebrated family of Gitano (or Romani) culture, from Utrera in Andalusia, who has been active since the late ’90s. He explores the outer edges of flamenco, while channeling its profound essence, rooted in lineage and tradition. His previous work, Tres Golpes (Lovemonk/El Volcán, 2022), was named flamenco album of the year by Babelia/El País, also one of the BBC Radio 3 Late Junction show’s ‘album of the year’.

ZA! are an experimental duo overlapping genres between wild jazz, post rock and avant-garde electronics and share an eagerness to experiment. The Catalan duo have operated independently since 2004. In their acclaimed latest work, they revived the Phoenician language, exploring Mediterranean sounds alongside MegaCobla and Tarta Relena.

“[Za! are] the duo that mash up terrace-chant mayhem with… everything else” (The Wire #384)

Perrate – having witnessed ZA!’s concert at a festival – was later invited to prepare a collaboration for the Música y Museos in Seville, leading him to approach ZA! A week before the concert, they met at La Mina Studios in Seville and prepared for what would be a well-received and successful concert. The album followed and there are numerous highlights throughout the diverse set.

Pregones has dub influences, with Perrate’s voice shining, trumpets and a sense of freedom:

Further dub rumblings reverberate on top of Steve Kahn, which is also carnivalesque and psychedelic:

Seguirilla Midi sounds like ’90s German ambient-techno and a post-rock wig-out:

La milonga is a trippy Iberian pop outing, incorporating vocoder, with their mutant flamenco precursor:

The album was recorded at the Happy Place studio, in Seville, between March 6th and 9th, 2023.

“I don’t care what the most radical traditionalist minds may think of this or any other work I do. This is my time and I intend to live it according to my way of feeling and living flamenco – my ancestors had a lot to do with the birth of this culture, and each of them created according to their feelings and their time. And I do the same.” Perate

The album is available on CD or vinyl on ZA! + Perrate’s Bandcamp.