Sephardic Flamenco

One of flamenco's secret building blocks is the Sephardic music that lived on outside the borders of Spain for hundreds of years after the expulsion of the Sephardic Jews in 1492. Magical ritual songs, laments, party songs, lullabies and more.

After the diaspora, the Sephardic culture survived largely thanks to the oral tradition that the women of the Sephardic families passed on to the next generations.
In this project we weave together these ancient melodies with contemporary flamenco and pay homage to the role of women as bearers of culture.

 

All photos: David Llanos Saavedra

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The duo Irene Pelayo Lind (vocals) and Afra Rubino (flamenco guitar) both have their feet in the flamenco tradition. Together with Pia Del Norte, they run the flamenco scene FlamencoFredag ​​in Stockholm with associated touring activities.

The songs are sung in the Judeo-Spanish language and in Spanish. The Sephardic melodies marry seamlessly with contemporary flamenco as they also echo through time in flamenco’s melting pot of cultural expressions.