Spanish singer-songwriter Joaquin Sabina is living a quiet life of reflection in Madrid, stepping back from large concerts and album releases to focus on his family, poetry, and drawing.
The musician is spending his time at a home with balconies overlooking a plaza in the Spanish capital that was known as the Plaza del Progreso almost a century ago, according to a column by Javier Menendez Flores.
Flores wrote that Sabina reflects on his past like a serial killer admiring his trophies, while observing the world from a golden barrier earned through thousands of hours on stage.
The artist's life is now moving in slow motion, compared to summer afternoons in a mountain house. He gives concerts in his living room for himself, reads extensively, watches television, and invents new sonnets. He also spends time drawing faces, nudes, and dreams, and is working on a new book of poetry and a challenging new song.
Sabina is not currently releasing new albums, performing for large crowds, or giving controversial interviews. Instead, he is supported by his extensive back catalogue of about 15 albums, with Flores noting that his work is sold for the next 50 years.
Memories of exile and return
Despite his quiet lifestyle in a central Madrid home described as a fish tank with thorns, Sabina's mind is still active with memories of a summer cinema, as well as his time in Granada and London.
The singer fled Spain in his youth, jumping on the first train out of the Estacion de Francia after feeling the breath of a sinister police force on his neck. He spent years in exile burning through his youth and laughing, ignoring the future before returning to Spain.
Upon his return, Sabina realised that language was a flying carpet and a first class ticket to glory. He attempted to write the most beautiful song in the world, Flores wrote.
Family, friends and past figures
The artist is now motivated by the sea, his wife Jimena, his daughters Carmela and Rocio, and his friends. Flores noted that Sabina is clinging to what truly matters as his physical strength wanes and his legacy begins to devour the man himself.
Sabina continues to reflect on his past, when the night felt like an endless tunnel. He remembers figures including Chispa from a cinema in Ubeda, a Dylan-esque woman named Lesley, and Sonia, whom he associated with love and war.
He also remembers his grandfather Ramon, whom he viewed as a free spirit in a captive Spain and who introduced him to music and joy.
Other memories include a boarding house in Granada with a secret passage to eternity, and the image of his father dying in a hospital bed, which Flores described as an ominous photograph Sabina cannot escape.
Watching the ruins of cabarets float by, Sabina smiles resignedly. The columnist wrote that Sabina's current glory lies in being a quiet temple that people enter with respect, and in the fact that people continue to write about him daily despite his absence from the public stage.
