rock / experimental music / original soundtracks
“Ainara LeGardon is an endless goldmine of common goods who early on understood that music is everything. If we ever dare to think about how to improve the overall state of the matter both in music and in culture, LeGardon must surely be an example to follow. Witnessing her evolution is and will continue to be a spectacle of nature.” (Adriano Galante. Rock de Lux)
I’m a guitarist, singer and composer. I work in the sphere of rock, improvisational and experimental music, both solo and as part of different collectives. I also collaborate currently with a number of dance and theatre companies, providing the soundtrack to different stage pieces.
Since my first gig in 1991, I’ve performed my music on stages across Europe and United States. I started my own label in 2003, releasing with it my solo albums: “In the mirror” (2003), “Each day a lie” (2005), “Forgive me if I don’t come home to sleep tonight” (2009), “We once wished” (2011), “Every Minute” (2014) —the latter two jointly released with Aloud Music Ltd.—, “Ainara LeGardon” (2017) and “Res-cue. The archive in the mouth” (2020).
Besides these recordings, I’ve devised sound and performance pieces such as “Ecosistemas sonoros piensan, aprenden” (2018) —the result of an artistic residence sponsored by Mugako-Festival de Música Avanzada—, the installation “Caementum” (2016) with media artist Jaime de los Ríos at the Museum Cemento Rezola (Donostia), or “El deseo como cemento” (2015) carried out in Wroclaw (Poland) during an artistic residence sponsored by the European Capital of Culture 2016, among others.
My self-titled album, produced by Xabier Erkizia in 2017, opened up the possibility for me to bring together the different musical areas I explore, from the rawest rock to sound improvisation and experimentation. The lyrics, in Spanish for the first time, also reflected that search and balance of imaginaries.
In 2020, I was awarded the Prize “Connexio, espacios para la reflexión” for my sound intervention “Conexión, modulación” at the Church of San Pedro de Mera (Lugo).
“Res-cue. The archive in the mouth“ is released in 2020 in a limited edition box set that contains two cassettes, a digital download and a book. It is a work of “archeophony” in which I converse with my own archive, reflecting on music, memory and time, and celebrate while listening again to the frailty that builds strength into attempting.
This concert in Teatro Jovellanos, Gijón (May 2021) showcases the natural evolution of this reflection and reinterpretation work; an onstage portrayal of my creation, twisting and destruction processes, in the shape of new songs and sound poems with a running theme: a chant to resistance from a place of fragility.
In 2022 I published “Ignora“, a hybrid publication I worked on with Ignacio Córdoba. It includes a physical book, with a limited print run of 250 copies, and a download code to the album, documentary and additional materials. With the artistic collaboration of Hannot Mintegia, Michael Pisaro-Liu and Andrés Rosa.
In the same year, I carried out “Oír con el recuerdo“, a series of 3 artistic actions in different locations in the Cidacos Valley (La Rioja), commissioned by Acción Cultural Española.
From June to November 2023, my sound installation “Pausa pulsar” could be seen and heard in the exhibition “That Time” at Tabakalera in collaboration with the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum. It is now part of the Shared Collection of Artium, Bilbao Fine Arts Museum and Tabakalera.
In 2024 I will be performing live “Pausar pulsa“, the performative drift of this sound installation. A work for a vocal performer and six different loudspeakers; an invitation to listen to and to observe a single voice, invoked and present at the same time.