Packing for a trip feels a bit like trying to predict the future.

You have to guess what you'll need and more importantly, why you'll need it.

When you're about to explore a city's music scene, you'd hope that open ears and curiosity would be all that you'd need.

At least that's my game plan.

[music] ♪ ♪ The unknown has a way of requiring less, or rather, more space for newness.

[music] [Grand Canyon I need] [You to wait, I'm running late] My only connection to Spanish music is through stories my dad used to share about studying with Andrés Segovia, one of Spain's guitar legends.

So here I am, stepping into the unknown and ready to discover my own Barcelona.

[music] ♪ ♪ His poetry was born here.

When you visit Barcelona, it's easy to be mesmerized by the endless beauty, the stunning architecture of Gaudi, the mouthwatering food, the colorful energy of the people.

But for me, this time, it's all about the music.

The sounds of Barcelona are a blend of rumba, flamenco, Catalan traditions and influences from the wave of immigrants who've shaped the city.

It's a dynamic fusion, always evolving.

But if I really want to understand what's alive in the music of Barcelona today, I need to connect with as many artists as I can.

To hear the song of Barcelona.

Throughout the city of Barcelona, there are neighborhoods with their own cultural identities.

First, I traveled to Gràcia to visit with Raül Refree.

What about the sound?

Are we good with people talking?

It's nice.

I like the sound of the city, man.

Okay.

You know, it's part of where we are, no?

Like, or who we are.

And it's the atmosphere in the atmosphere.

Yeah.

[music] Raül Refree is a music producer and innovator of sound from Barcelona.

He produced Rosalia's his breakout record, Los Angeles, that catapulted her into stardom and breathed new life into flamenco music.

He has worked with many artists and also has his own musical projects, but most prominently within him is a desire to create something fresh, even if it stems from tradition.

- So in terms of your relationship with Barcelona and in terms of your music, do you think about this?

A lot of a preservation in what you're creating?

I think that it's important to preserve, but not only to preserve, because if you are only preserving, you're keeping things like they were in a certain moment, like in a cage, and they are stuck there.

You want it to be alive.

I love recomposing things because it's a way to make them survive.

[music] - So how do you approach something when you're going to recompose it?

- There's many different ways of approach.

One is obviously it's to to learn a lot about what you're doing and to understand what other people did in the past and just listen and try to give you a point of view about what you listen.

And for me, it's completely respectful.

It's just another point of view.

So how did you become like this?

When I was a child and I was, learning classical piano, I was blamed by teachers.

So this kid is not studying.

This kid, He's doing whatever he wants to do.

But I think I could not do it in another way.

I always.

It's always been easier for me to change what it's supposed to be done than to play it exactly the way they teach you.

I've done the same because my father studied classical guitar.

He studied with Segovia.

And he's very- Wow.

Yeah.

And so he's like, you learn from the master and it's beautiful.

But I didn't like how that felt.

None of this feels right.

I would rather play without thinking.

I remember Miles Davis saying, saying this exact thing that you have to learn.

You have to, obviously, you have to learn.

And you have to know, like the music that you're playing.

But then once you're playing, once you're creating, you have to forget everything.

[music] - After considering breaking the mold, I felt the need to go back to school.

I wanted to learn about the fundamentals of form, matter, and acoustics.

So I sought out the highly unconventional Professor Martí Ruiz.

Martí Ruiz has a PhD in applied acoustics.

He's a visual and sound artist and has a deep interest in the work of Francois and Bernard Baschet, who were pioneers of sound sculpture and revolutionized the way we experience and interact with sound.

- We can just start, actually, by a balloon.

Yeah, the balloons are very important because the first invention by the Baschet brothers, by Francois Baschet, himself, was a guitar that, instead of having a wooden box, it was a balloon.

[speaking French] So in this case, the balloon, as in the Baschet guitar can do that.

And then you can start considering the materiality of this added element.

So this is why the wood of the guitar, the shape of a guitar or a cello, all of those things define the overall, sonority.

It's kind of like a very literal manifestation of how sound is related to our bodies.

- Yeah.

And our movement.

Sure, I mean sound.

We can understand it as an emanation is a behavior of how things vibrate.

And vibrating is just basically dancing.

- So if sound is a result of vibration, then what about movement?

Like dancing?

Our bodies experience sound and are affected by the waves.

So the way we perceive vibration has a direct influence on the way we move.

Everything goes into tape and then the tapes will be shown at the end of the exhibition as traces of everything that we're doing.

And then people will be able to also play that Baschet sound sculpture and leave their own traces so they can work with tape loop.

So it's all about traces and recordings and how recording changes your perception of what you do.

So they're dancing to a recording and I'm playing.

to a recording.

Yes.

The last day will be sharing all this process.

Wow.

So it's like direct relation to recording in the creative process and being perceived while you're doing it.

And so also then with the cameras and they were choreographing themselves with you, it was like full interrelational recording.

I was like this is so meta, my brain's maybe gonna fall off.

[music] If you ever get the chance to hear the music of Joan Garriga.

Do yourself a favor and make it happen.

Joan is one of those rare artists who carries the joy of music with him everywhere he goes.

Like it just spills out of him.

Growing up in Catalonia, he soaked up music from the streets, the dancehalls, anywhere music was happening.

Now he's one of the key figures of the Catalonian and Spanish pop music of this century.

What's even cooler?

Joan picked up the accordion after hearing Flaco Jiménez play.

An absolute legend from my neck of the woods in Texas.

There's something special about meeting someone whose musical roots are tangled up with your own.

But who's taken that inspiration and made it into something completely unique?

[music] It's a reminder of how inspiration has no borders.

So what we're trying to show is like not just what tourists would be attracted to, but really a sense of the origin of the city.

So you need to be lost.

is the only way here and in the world and in the life now.

I think you do need to be lost!

We can talk a lot.

We can explain mysteries.

But if you need to, meet something, you need to be lost.

Yeah.

When was the last time you were lost?

The last time?

- Yeah.

This morning.

So we're having a Catalonia... A very traditional music, it's called havaneras Havaneras - Havaneras And how does this sound?

Havaneras is a music Who come from Cuba.

And we sing here in our way.

Like a bolero.

And have the clave too.

Oh, with the clave.

tock, tock tock tock Tock.

Wow!

- But, play something.

Oh, this would be you could play this.

[singing] Yeah, the difference between a flower and a tree is a seed.

If I can help you, with another question.

I'm here now.

I love it.

Well, I feel like there's so many questions.

That you could help with, 'cause...

But I think I have to remain lost for the time being.

Okay.

- Bueno Cheers.

Like, the beginning of the song.

There is always a first line.

The destination is unknown.

But if you follow the path, let it be silent.

Let it be loud.

Eventually a shape will form.

As abstract as it may sound.

The only answer is to take the next step, or at least to look forward to what you will find next.

I headed to Barceloneta, a former working class home to the city's fishermen and their families.

Now a high end destination for tourists and a hotspot for beach goers.

This is that like, you know, like a very poor neighborhood.

It doesn't seem like it.

Yeah, because you see a lot of tourist people.

[music] Miss Raisa is a rapper, activist and entrepreneur.

She immigrated to Barcelona from Morocco at eight years old.

Speaking only Arabic, she had to learn both Catalan and Spanish, the latter of which became her preferred language for creative expression.

When did you start to play music?

Was it when you came to- Yeah, it was in this neighborhood.

Really?

Yeah.

You know, in the in the college I met, like 3 or 4 guys.

They made, like, rap music in Catalan language.

So it was like a weird thing.

So they start, like, helping me to.

So the first and the second song, I do what I feel.

So I'm not a professional.

Maybe, but I am a really authentic person.

So this is what I try to put in my songs and my music.

So... - I couldn't leave this Mediterranean Oceanside neighborhood without a taste of one of Spain's most traditional dishes.

Paella.

Oh my God.

Oh, muchas gracias.

- It's seafood and rice with just the right amount of saffron.

Okay, but this is not your first paella?

I know, it's not my first paella, but it's my first paella in Spain.

So it's your first paella.

We have arroz con gandules.

Have you had?

Oh, it's verdad.

In Puerto Rico, My family is like.

"This is how we make our rice."

Okay, so being Moroccan.

Do you prefer paella?

How do you feel about rice?

Is what I'm trying to say.

Oh my God.

But I cannot choose between a couscous, a Moroccan couscous, which is delicious.

and between a paella Which is brilliant.

if I want a real couscous, I call my mom.

"Hey, Mami, I want..." [music] In the heart of the multicultural community, El Raval, You'll find a beacon of history.

El EcoMuseo Urbano Gitano de Barcelona Sam Garcia, the president of this cultural hub, is a guardian of, gitano stories and traditions.

The museum celebrates the birthplace of rumba and pays homage to one of the heroes of Gitano music.

Peret, the King of Rumba.

[music] [music] On our deep dive into the Gitano culture.

Sam took me to a secret spot to show me the fundamentals of rumba.

♪ ♪ [singing] [strumming a guitar] Wow.

I learned my first bit of rumba.

Thank you.

According to Sam, there are three elements to rumba.

And yet I can't help but feel there's a fourth.

The energy of joy.

It's impossible to play the rhythm without feeling alive.

And so I venture to visit with a band that is creating new music with this same vitality.

[music] Maruja Limón is a female quintet based in Barcelona, characterized by their vibrant music that oscillates between flamenco, pop and Latin rhythms.

[music] Oh my God, this is such cool merch!

Wow.

Thank you.

If you had to try and define what the sound of Barcelona is, what would you say?

It could be abstract.

So it's alive and it's always changing and it has so much in it.

Yeah, that's how life is though.

We all influence each other no matter what.

And it's beautiful that everybody seems so aware of it in this city that there are these different rhythms and different ways and there's tradition, but then there's also something new coming from it, and everybody loves a rumba.

[music] There is not one reason for creativity.

Our creations are the result of both the cultures we break away from, and the cultures that we long to connect with, what we eat, where we come from, what inspires us.

It all affects the sounds we make.

The languages we speak, how we interact, and how we make music.

[music] Feeling more connected to the rhythms of the city, I wanted to dance.

I met up with Karen Lugo, one of Spain's most original and captivating flamenco stars.

- You got into it right away!

Yeah.

[music] ♪ ♪ I was kind of obsessed with drums when I was young, so in flamenco, I kind of find this connection between rhythm and body and movement and percussion, and...

So you get to be the drum.

Yeah, yeah.

One thing that it's always present, very present in my creation, is the fact that I'm from Mexico.

I grew up there.

A lot of memories I I have from there a lot of music, a lot of images.

Sometimes when I create, this comes to me like a wave.

No?

like I'm here.

Like art hits you depending what you are feeling and what you are living.

- You know, we're talking about sound as a way of expressing what a city is, and that also involves movement.

But it's also that there's so many influences that you can't really put a border on a city.

I do think that our nostalgia and wanting to remember where we were from will be with us, no matter where we are.

Yeah.

And no matter how many years pass.

Yeah.

And then it continues to live in the city that you're in.

Flamenco.

For me, it's a tool.

To, to express, it's a language at the end.

[music] I decided to head out to the outskirts of the city to get a dose of silence for myself.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I returned to the city for the annual Night of San Juan, marking the changing of the seasons.

It's the loudest day of the year.

Ahh!

As the sun sets, the streets are illuminated by the warm glow of bonfires.

As each community sheds the past and embraces the promise of a fresh start.

[music] ♪ ♪ The exhilarating cacophony of fireworks overhead mirrors the collective anticipation of new beginnings.

Barcelona.

You have composed a symphony of experiences that I will treasure forever.

The world is filled with questions and answers.

How can I let myself be borderless?

and allow my environment to influence me?

An ocean of possibilities.

Sounds and waves.

And so it's on to the next.

[music] ♪ ♪ Barcelona ♪ ♪ You have shown me how I want to grow where I want to go ♪ ♪ on my own.

♪ ♪