Popular music group
Founded in the town of Teguise in 1983, Acatife links the recovery of Lanzarote folklore with original creation and the island’s social memory. Its career encompasses more than five hundred performances and eight recordings.
Acatife was formed in the town of Teguise in 1983 to study and disseminate the island’s folklore while contributing new creations. Its first public performance took place on TVE’s Tenderete, presented by Nanino Díaz Cutillas. It has since given more than five hundred performances across the Canary Islands, mainland Spain, Germany and France, and has appeared on national and international television.
The group organises its work along three lines: recovering songs preserved in collective memory, setting researched verses and texts to music, and creating new songs rooted in tradition and contemporary social life. Emigration from Lanzarote is a recurring subject in this repertory. Acatife also fosters exchange through its festival and recognises the preservation of popular heritage with its Volcán de Plata distinction.
Acatife avoids building its repertory around versions associated with other groups. It combines traditional pieces, previously unpublished compositions and original songs, performed in a simple stage formation of voices, string instruments and percussion. Some of its texts come from traditional balladry and research connected with Diego Catalán, Sebastián Sosa Barroso and Jesús María Godoy.
Recordings, concerts and twenty-nine editions of the Acatife Festival have disseminated Lanzarote repertories and brought them into dialogue with artists from other islands, mainland Spain and Latin America. The Volcán de Plata distinction extends this work by recognising people and organisations that contribute to the island’s popular heritage.
The group is formed in Teguise and makes its first public appearance on the TVE programme.
It releases an album dedicated to the martyrs of the Cruz del Mar.
It releases six works exploring the traditions, Christmas music, landscape and memory of Lanzarote.
For its fortieth anniversary, it presents a work recorded live at Jameos del Agua, also connected with anniversaries of Teguise and César Manrique.
