Berto Turulla

Spanish keyboards player, composer and arranger (1957-1983). Berto Turulla was born in the neighborhood of La Calzada (Gijón-Spain) and in Asturias he had a brief but very intense activity during the second half of the 70s and the first of the 80s. Sadly, he died electrocuted in 1983 during a concert. His musical legacy is very little known, although from certain areas of Asturian culture a constant effort is being made to correct it. He was one of the people most involved with Progressive-Symphonic Rock and a pioneer in masterfully playing a Minimoog in Asturias. He had an instrumental group (although there were sometimes vocal lines) called La Turulla in which they themselves recognized influences from bands like Yes, Return To Forever or the Spanish Música Urbana. The life of this formation was short (1977-1978) and did not leave any official record recording in those years. Berto also participated in several recordings of some Asturian singer-songwriters officiating as keyboardist and arranger, giving them that slight progressive air in the instrumentation (as in the case of the first albums of Carlos Rubiera or Xulio Ramos). The last group he joined and the one that gave him the most recognition was Cuélebre, a melodic pop-rock band, with evident symphonic arrangements and elements related to Asturian folklore. After his death a tribute concert was held at the Gijon soccer stadium "El Molinón"), being the first time that a musical event was organized in this environment. There were many people and it is a concert that many people from Gijón still remember, with countless Asturian musicians involved and with Miguel Ríos and Víctor Manuel as headliners.