los mols: an oasis in the natural park karst en yesos de sorbas. without the spring waters which originate not far up the canyon from the village, los mols probably wouldn't have come into being. rainwater percolates down through the gypsum rock beds (for which the area is famous) into underground pools from which it finds its way to the surface at the lowest point, here in the canyon. the bamboo cane thrives along the canyon floor where the spring water flows past los mols finally reaching the sea at mojacar.
it's a sort-of eco-village... most of the inhabitants use solar panels or wind turbines to generate electricity, and the ram-pump which pumps the water around uses the pressure of the water itself to force it up and around. sunseed, a british-based permaculture volunteer project, is situated lower down the village. tim rents the second of dave's houses in the middle of the village and i got the use of the top floor with it's terrace views of the canyon. tim has a room on the lower floor and the rest is dedicated to his agave museum filled with drums, didgeridoos, flutes and other things made from this amazing ecological wood. on the walls are photos of the agave plant during its lifecycle, how it is harvested to utilise the wood (and its other components like the fibre and nectar), where it grows in abundance in the arid surroundings of this part of spain and especially in the natural park cabo de gata.
i think it was about 10 years ago that i arrived the first time in los mols. then tim was living and travelling around in his orange mercedes van, and dave was just building/restoring his first house here, the casa de la realidad, which tim and i with some other helped to build. i had just signed on in london and taken the eurolines to paris, from where it took two days to hitch down to andalucia and a never-again 20kms walk from the autovia to sorbas and then a lift to los mols. tim had always egged me on to make a drum and i made a special trip just for this. tim drove in his van to the area around san jose and helped me choose the right pita (anduluz for agave) to harvest. unlike other 'wood' for drums, we didn't need to kill a tree for it. in the life-cycle of the pita, after it has sprouted the flower stem and flowered and the seeds have dropped, the whole plant dies. after a year or so, the flower stem hardens into wood and is ready for harvesting. we tore the huge dessicated spiky leaves away using gloves and dug away the soil to reveal the heart of the pita. i sawed off the flower stem and also the bottom part with the roots, and got myself the start of the drum body. over the next week or so, tim showed me how to hollow out the fibrous interior and also how to make the rings. in between times we made music sessions and trips to playa monsul and san pedro, and also the hot springs on the road from sorbas direction guadix. by the time i had to leave back for london, the drum body was sanded and oiled, and the rings prepared, but no time to put on a skin. i asked tim to stash it away in his van until the next time we would meet up, which ended up being in cadaques a couple of years later, the place where we had first met in the amazing summer of 1996 and the isla de port lligat....
when tom-tom came with the van, we had a real community action going with help from the sunseed crew to unload the dismantled workshop. rob and i helped tim put the huge 3-d jigsaw back together again in the garden behind the house. as for the drum, it got a make-over. new denim for the bottom ring and new rope for both flexible rings. the cracks were filled in with wood glue and the injection system, the whole drum body sanded down and oiled with linseed oil outside and in, except for the top rim which needed sunflower oil as this is the part which comes into contact with the skin. tim still had some old skins hanging about up in dave's shed which had been gnawed at by the rats but fortunately enough of it left to use. i cut the shape from the best one and left it to soak overnight in a tub of water, joining the sunseed crew and some of the other los mols residents in sorbas to watch barcelona beat man utd. in the champions league final.
the next morning i woke to find the skin gone... it was luna, dave's dog. guilty as hell. it was she who had first got hold of it when it was still dry some days before but someone had found it on the path, and luckily no teeth punctures. this time i was not so lucky. no sign of dog or skin. nothing for it but to cut out the second best skin and let it soak overnight again.
the new skin went on the other day and left on the balcony well out of dogs' reach to dry overnight. ended up hanging out with ruben and rosanna, a young spanish couple from castilla, in their cosy little rented house called l'oasis. beautiful. an oasis in the oasis. still can't get over ruben's story about when he was 100% sure he was seeing an extra-terrestrial only it turned out to be buba, one of the sunseed crew, instead.
yesterday, the drum was ready for shaving. and me too! after using the shaving machine, careful sanding down the small hairs – on the drum skin!- and a final spit to polish it off. one last tensioning and it's ready to play. and it sounds great. what a great travelling drum. small but with a good bass, and weighs in around a kilo and a half. don't even want to imagine what it would be like lugging around a djembe of similar size.
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