Communication with the northernmost corner of the European continent is capricious. There is no cover and, if the wind gets wild, a dune with a life of its own threatens to cut off the main access road. And that is precisely why the Punta Paloma recording studio, located in the hidden and paradisiacal place of the same name in Tarifa, is so special. But the remoteness of the space has not prevented the most prominent musicians and singers on the Spanish and even international scene from finding it and choosing it as one of the most unique spaces for musical creation.
From Chris Martin—Coldplay vocalist—to Rosario Flores; from Antonio Orozco to Juanes: the list of artists who have passed through the Punta Paloma Studios throughout their more than three decades of activity is as eclectic as it is varied. Together, they have contributed to ensuring that the fame of the hidden studio within the world is far from declining. Perhaps that is why its owner and creator, José María Sagrista, is unable to keep any of them: “I can’t say one. In all the recordings there are always good and bad moments. Of immense joy, of frustration. There is a lot of psychology in the studio.”
Sagrista was a guitarist during several tours of the Andalusian rock group Triana. In the 80s he founded his own group, Círculo viioso, and it was right there that he began to entertain the idea of creating his own studio. “When we recorded our first album we went to London to record an album. It turned out that the studio was in the middle of a lost town, even though it was a mega studio, it was something personal. There it was clear to me that that would be my dream,” says the music producer. But the project did not materialize until a decade later, when he had already tried his luck in managing similar spaces in Camas (Seville) and the Andalusian capital with Estudio Central.
It was in 1993 when Sagrista and his wife, Nini Carrasco, began the construction of the facilities in Punta Paloma. “We both like nature and the countryside. We couldn’t stand life in the city, those were intense years. I had the opportunity thanks to my parents, who bought a little piece of land there,” says the musician. The work was hard. The construction started from scratch and to guarantee the total isolation of the control cabin and the recording room, two independent concrete modules were built. In addition, natural materials such as stone or wood were used in the design.
The result is a complex where you can compose, record, make musical arrangements, but also stay, in an environment so lost from the madding crowd that mobile coverage is scarce and with the risk of ending up connected to a Moroccan telephone network. At the northernmost end of the peninsula, with a natural dune that invades the only access road and with enviable views of the Strait, a state of absorption is reached, ideal for creating, as Sagrista defends. “It’s a very nice feeling because you are doing something that is not done so easily nowadays, that musicians are moonlighting, you can concentrate on a project in a place where there is very little interference,” defends the music producer.
Sagrista remembers the years in which they did not even have a landline in the studio: “We had a neighbor, Pepa, with a public telephone. The woman shouted at me and told me ‘Joselito, someone called on the phone. I will always be grateful to her and to the neighbors who helped us.'” Then, the producer had to “try to find out who he was.” “That’s how we started. Without a phone and without anything and we did it,” adds the artist. Then, Sagrista gave Pepa a long rope with a cowbell so that she could locate him more quickly, then the landline or the internet arrived, but the disconnection with the world is still there.
Perhaps that is why Coldplay vocalist, Chris Martin, stopped at the Punta Paloma Studio in July 2024 for 20 days. “He came with his technician and brought his piano and we prepared everything for him,” explains Sagrista, who boasts of giving just that flexibility when renting his studio: “Any technician or producer can work here and is left alone. It is a very open space.” In fact, the producer has doubts about what Martin recorded or not in those days. Of course, that visit left a very good taste in his mouth: “It was a very good experience, he is very friendly and speaks Spanish very well. He came to greet me and tell me that he had a very nice studio and that it sounded very good.”
That visit was a definitive boost to a studio that has a long history. Alejandro Sanz, Estrella Morente, El Barrio, Economía Pasillo, Chambao and Manuel Carrasco have passed through there throughout these decades. There are artists who do not stay in the studio, like Martín and others who did, like Rosario Flores. In all cases, Sagrista and Carrasco try to cover the entire administration, from the musical to the administrative, organizational and culinary, a task that falls to Carrasco. “Ours is still an artisan, family, and self-built studio,” Sagrista boasts proudly.
Sagrista, now 70 years old, boasts that he is still a musician, thanks to active retirement. But she also does not hide her satisfaction that her daughter, Diana Sagrista, continues to be linked to the Punta Paloma Studio. The professional, film sound engineer and winner of the Goya for best sound for Second Prizeis another key piece in the space: “She lives here, has her environment here and does work in the studio. It is a flag of Andalusia and the new generations.”
The studio, “known throughout Spain and in many parts of the world,” as Sagrista boasts, has become an emblem of the province of Cádiz and Andalusia. “People want to come here for a reason. We have the humor and the idiosyncrasy, with the background of imagination that humor needs,” emphasizes the producer, on the other end of the phone on a windy day in the middle of those storms that have hit the area with fury. But he assures that they don’t even bother him: “This is wonderful in the storm. It’s stormy, clear and downpours, but that’s nice too.”