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MBARI 007CD
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This is the second solo guitar album from Portugal's Norberto Lobo. On Pata Lenta, he covers a dramatic range of styles, from bluegrass fingerpicking to Brazil's northeastern folk; from a cover of Björk's "Unravel" to his own take on Portuguese instrumental guitar music. On his uninterrupted voyage through guitar poetics, Lobo has been on expeditions with several great names. He took part in Rhys Chatham's "Guitar Trio" in Lisbon, and has performed with renowned vocalist/guitarist Lula Pena and jammed with guitar greats from across the spectrum such as Steffen Basho-Junghans and Gary Lucas, and has shared the stage with friend Devendra Banhart. He has played in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, England, USA, Canada (where he opened, at her request, for Lhasa) and the Netherlands (where he played with renowned cellist Ernst Reijseger), honing his ability to guide listeners to seldom-visited inner landscapes. Playing solo guitar is a public test of dexterity, creativity and heart -- an attempt to bring together ideas and emotions that will summon a whole universe into existence. Norberto, between those 6 and 12 strings, is able to unfold himself into multiple voices that rally together as quickly as they challenge each other. On Pata Lenta, he has tapped into a series of traditions and harnessed them into his own vision -- primitive music filtered through modern-day free traditions, evoking the distinctive Portuguese style of Carlos Paredes, meditating on Lisbon and the Tagus river; echoing Paulinho da Viola's delicate choros and sambas, revealing a love affair with Brazilian music, and remembering the primordial blues of John Fahey and Charley Patton. However, Norberto deftly weaves in his own stories, mining forgotten emotions and mending long-lost spiritualities to craft an album of delicate folk-guitar beauty.
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MBARI 005CD
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Portuguese underground legend Tó Trips releases his first solo -- and acoustic -- album after two decades of producing fiercely uncompromising and original music. From John Dowland's XVI century airs to Joaquin Rodrigo's guitar works, from Peter Walker to Marc Ribot, with impressions of Cape Verdean music, Cuban son, Brazilian choro, North Africa's oud music, Guitarra 66 is an original work by someone deeply haunted by all traditions and life journeys. It may not be self-evident, but Guitarra 66 is as much about Portugal as it is about the rest of the world and is a first person account of one who knows that, sometimes, we need nothing more than the wind blowing through the trees. From his first start in the late '80s with his first band, Amen Sacristi, to his part in the Portuguese underground with Santa Maria Gasolina Em Teu Ventre ("Holy Mother Gasoline In Your Womb"), to his time in Lulu Blind (who opened for Sonic Youth and Manic Street Preachers) in the early '90s, Tó's musical route appears side by side with names like Steve Albini's Big Black, Glenn Branca and, naturally, Sonic Youth. But in Portugal, as opposed to just about everywhere else in the post-grunge world, "underground" never meant "mainstream." Tó Trips' joint project with Pedro Gonçalves -- Dead Combo -- sought to answer that need. The band's checkered style -- part-Morricone, part-Tom Waits -- knotted the audience around it. However, Guitarra 66 creates a quieter world out of melodic pieces born with a noise aesthetic, which has always been Tó's primary habitat as a guitar player (as is evident by his part in Rhys Chatham's large-scale works). Tó Trips describes this solo work as "a romantic album, Mediterranean, with Portuguese roots. An Iberian album gazing upon the Atlantic. It crisscrosses voyages through the African desert, evokes the Latino neighborhoods of U.S. cities, and beckons the south seas." Tó also draws inspiration from the late Portuguese guitar legend Carlos Paredes and Marc Ribot, and though he might act on his influences, he does his best to lose them in the chase. His technique digresses and draws ellipses with agile and circular melodies that can be dark and droning or delicate, gentle sketches.
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