It was the city of Valencia (Spain) that saw Efrén José Miguel López Sanz come into this world on the 9th July, 1972 at the tender age of nought. Due to his size at birth (5.8kg) he was immediately, though unofficially, christened “Urtain” by the hospital orderlies, after a famous Basque boxer of the 70s. At school he was an absolute disaster. In fact 36 years after his arrival on earth, he still holds no official academic qualifications, not even his Leaving Certificate. The blame for this lies in a number of disagreements with a certain P.E. instructor. This marked the beginnings of Efrén’s less than perfect relationship with authority… He has been interested in music for as long as he has been conscious of the world around him, and can still remember all the arrangements of the songs he heard being played in the working class area he grew up in: Camilo Sesto, El Fary, Boney M, Los Pecos, Obús… It was around this time, 1993, that Efrén formed his first, more or less serious group with singer Cándida Sanchis. The group was called Margaritas y Cerdos and was influenced by 70s rock and various traditional styles. This is also the time he initiated his sitar studies, and began to investigate music from the north of India with Bengal resident Elche Sazed Ul Alam. He also started working with Miquel Gil as bass guitarist and producer. The warmth of the acoustic instruments he had been acquiring (sitar, mandolin, bouzouki, swarmandal, 6 and 12 string acoustic guitars…) began to displace Efrén’s previous passion for the electric guitar, and a couple of years later, praying to Saint Jimmy Page for forgiveness, he sold off his last two electric instruments. In a search for musicians who shared his new musical interests, he came across those in the area of traditional Valencian music such as Eduard Navarro and Dídac Palau, with whom he formed his first group of traditional music La Banda de l’Agredolç, a power-folk trio focussed on music for the Valencian dolçaina (shawn). At the time he was also sought after as a session musician for all types of work and played for pop stars (Marta Sánchez, Seguridad Social, Presuntos Implicados...) and, the crowing jewel of this “Black Curriculum” as he calls it: an unforgettable television advertisement for Famosa dolls, "Las Muñecas de Famosa". 1998 saw the start of a professional relationship that was to last 10 years. Efrén met Mara Aranda when they were both involved in recording the only existing album for Cendraires, a group from Algemesi (Valencia/Spain). Efrén later joined the band and played a few concerts with them. Together, Efrén and Mara formed L’Ham de Foc, recording three albums and touring all over Europe and China to the unexpected and, for a group singing in Catalan and using only acoustic instruments, unusual acclaim of public and critics alike. His close collaboration with Miquel Gil continued as the latter took a new turn into Catalan song, and Efrén recorded and produced Gil’s first album “Orgànic”, though he went on to leave the band a short time later. Parallel to L’Ham de Foc’s successful and intense trajectory, Efrén decided to devote himself to learning, and made several trips to Greece and Turkey. There he was lucky enough to study directly with some of his favourite musicians: Ross Daly, Mehmet Erenler,Erol Parlak, Yurdal Tokcan, Necati Çelik…and come into contact with many others who do not teach formal classes, but with whom he was able to share experiences and the stage: Stelios Petrakis, Thymios Atzakas, Maria Thoidou, Antonis Frangadakis, Kyriakos Tapakis, Loukas metaxas, Hristos Barbas, Nikos Tzannis, Ralf Eickmeier, Pantelis Pavlidis,Eleni Kallimopoulou, Sofia Lambropolou… Through his work with L’Ham de Foc, Efrén was able to collaborate with musicians such as Elena Ledda, Luigi Cinque, Os Ganhoes, Ross Daly and Estampie in festivals throughout Spain, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Norway, Belgium, Portugal, Luxemburg, Italy, Poland and China. Apart from this, his interest in instruments brought him into contact with several luthiers, some of which have become great friends, and from all of whom Efrén has learnt a great deal: Sedo García, Jesús Redolid, Dimitris Rapakousios, Joan Pellisa, Stelios Petrakis… In 1999, another of his longest lasting collaborations began. It was with Capella de Ministrers, a prestigious Valencian group dedicated to Early Music and directed Carles Magraner who plays the viola da gamba. As a part of this ongoing collaboration Efrén has participated in the recording of over 10 albums of music from the Medieval and Renaissance music using the period instruments that he has acquired over the years: medieval lute, gittern, hurdy-gurdy, psaltery, trompa marina and oud. Together with Capella, he has played in the most prestigious concert halls in Spain, France, Portugal, Croatia, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Greece and Italy. Within this world of Early Music, at a very hippy-style jam session at the Rural Folk Festival of Vallfogona de Ripollés (with an electric guitar, drums and an Indian harmonium), Efrén made the acquaintance of Catalan singer Maria Laffitte, of whom he had been a fervent admirer ever since her recordings with Els Trobadors. Years later he joined forces with Maria’s daughter, Miriam Encinas to form the Medieval trio Joi de Trobar. The group was active up until the death of Laffitte in 2007. Now, together with Miriam, Efrén is working on recovering the works of Laffitte in homage to this great singer and close friend. 2003 was a year for two new projects: Aman Aman, dedicated to Sephardic music, and Sabir, an instrumental trio. He recorded albums with both groups and played throughout Spain. Efrén’s collaborations continue today with, for example, Daud Khan, his Afghan Rabab teacher, or the Valencian musical group La Beniterrània. In 2004 he founded the Alfàndech Collective with the aim of raising awareness of Mediterranean stringed instruments. He also started giving bağlama classes, teaching composition and arrangement for modal music, at the prestigious Labyrinthos Centre on Crete, which is run by his teacher Ross Daly, and giving seminars on Medieval music at Mousiko Horio (musical village) on Mount Pilio in the Central Greece. Towards the end of 2006, Efrén moved to Greece, living in Thessaloniki and Chania, Crete, where he recorded an album “Orion”, with his much admired friend, Stelios Petrakis and performed with Evdousin, Pantelis Pavlidis’ group, together with composer, Cretan lute virtuoso and friend Antonis Franagadakis and singer Maria Thoidou. Apart from this myriad of projects, Efrén is also currently involved in concerts and recording with Trio Tzane, a female a capella group working on Balkan polyphony, and Yeden Quartet, a Greek instrumental group. He has also recently begun work on two very interesting projects, one with Ross Daly & Labyrynth Modal Ensemble and the other with a Greek-Austrian Early Music group Ex Silentio. A new group has also grown from Efrén’s work in Early Music. Members are Efrén himself, the nyckelharpist Ana Alcaide, two old colleagues from L’Ham de Foc – Miriam Encinas on vielle, recorders and percussion, and Laia Puig on recorders, bag-pipes and shawn, and singer Iván López. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Efr%C3%A9n+L%C3%B3pez">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.