Carlos Martín Ballester, el coleccionista que rastrea el patrimonio sonoro español

Carlos Martín Ballester owns the largest collection of sound archives in Spain, a "frenetic" undertaking he began as a teenager out of his love for flamenco. The collection includes recordings of Lorca, Unamuno, and Ramón Franco. Martín Ballester bought his first record in the Plaza de Vara del Rey, the antiques market, for 700 pesetas. It was a recording of Manuel Vallejo, the Sevillian flamenco singer who received the second Golden Key of Flamenco Singing in 1926. Shortly after, in 1993, he discovered 78 rpm records, also known as shellac records, so he could listen to older artists. At that point, his passion took off. He began traveling to locate private collections on the verge of disappearing, meeting with institutions looking to sell their holdings, and visiting secondhand markets. He then expanded his work to include the restoration of records in poor condition, their digitization, classification, and finally, the collection of old photographs, period posters, and all kinds of record label documents that would help contextualize the findings. Ultimately, his passion became his profession, and his collection a cultural enterprise divided into two areas: Andalusia and its diverse musical expressions, with 20,000 records, and what he calls the "archive of the spoken word," "non-musical" recordings of key figures in our history with literary, scientific, cultural, or political value, comprising another 2,000. #record #music #history #slate #vinyl #collecting #madrid #spain #abc #journalism #culture #interview 🔤 Don't miss any stories, subscribe to our channel 🤝 https://www.youtube.com/@ABC_es?sub_c... ✍️ You can read the full interview at this link: https://www.abc.es/cultura/guardian-1... 📰 All the information in ABC: https://www.abc.es/ 📲 Want more? https://bit.ly/3KKmZvd Visit our social media channels 🤳 🐦 Twitter:   / abc_es   ⬛ TikTok:   / abc.es   📸 Instagram:   / abc_diario   🟦 Facebook:   / abces