Month: August 2023

Adventuring Into the Unknown

words: Raquel Pinheiro; photos: Telma Mota

Nothing like going blind and curious into a concert and leave fullfilled. Telma and I wanted to check Soccorro’s, a recent record shop in Porto, new concert room. And so we did.

Cavala, a five piece from Porto, are the band to watch and go to see if they play near you. Renovating elements from Portuguese like Mlef If Dada or Pop Dell’Arte coupled with a pop-punk-post punk approach, Madlen Pinto (vocals, guitar and a bit of everything), Maria Cabral (bass, vocals), Helena Carneiro (drums), Inês Barbosa (guitar, vocals, kora, flute) and Mariana Amorim (melodica, vocals, ukulele, fife) bring us a joyous musical and vocal set, even when their voices speak of less sunnier issues.

Also from Porto, Ideal Victim – Mariana (vocals), Bruno Esteves (guitar), Jimmy (drums), Alex Vieira (bass) – have tints of a blast from 80s American hardcore, transposed for and enriched for today, in a venue, in Porto. Mariana is a force of nature, on stage, jumping to the middle of the audience, screaming, tantalizing. Ideal Victim are loud, very loud, energetic, in your face. Pure raw power.

From Melbourne, Australia, come Pinch Points. Acacia (bass, vocals), Adam (guitar, vocals)), Isabella (drums, vocals), Jordan (guitar, vocals) dressed in their shorts and shirt band outfit bring a fun, groovy, laid-back punk-post-punk performance that permeates the thirteen songs played. Theirs is an infectious sunny disposition to Pinch Points. A perfect match to a hot, sun blazing, Sunday afternoon.

Even Experimentalists Dance!

words: Raquel Pinheiro; photos: Telma Mota

First and foremost, our heartfelt apologies to Pavarotti III for have missed the performance. Pavarotti III is Sonoscopia’s canary and was going to present festival goes with glorious bird singing in the garden. We also didn’t saw Em Charme and Tren Go! Sound System.

We arrived on time to seat on the floor of the concert room and catch Vincent Martial playing his flute in the concert room of Summer’s smallest festival. Only 99 people, and one canary, allowed. Maltial’s flute is used in a mix of contemporary language with traits of ancient sounds. A nice beginning of our musical day.

Next was Farida Amadou, on the backyard stage, using her bass, pedals, drum sticks, mallets, to create for expressing something that, in a way, is lost on the listener. Why? It is a very personal use and interpretation of what, from this side, seem to be ways of addressing feelings, emotions, world events.background. If that is so, only Farida can answer.

And now we’re on one of the most upbeat, funny, entertaining gigs ever: Manu Louis, with his guitar, synth, electronics, voice combo of happiness, wrapped in a white bathrobe, playing outside and inside Sonoscopia’s bathroom, to which he would retreat now and then, leaving us with his silhouette and voice. What a riot! So much joy, dancing and humour! Such great songs. A much needed counterpoint to the sombreness and seriousness and more left field experimentalism from before, perfect for a hot, sunny, late Summer afternoon.

Harrga (Dali de St. Paul and Miguel Prado, here with Dali only) follows on the concert room. Harrga is harsh. Loud. Almost too extreme, too too much for the space where the performance happens. There is a message being tried to be brought across. An angry, in extremis one, sort of lost. Maybe the idea is to stir up some action in the audience? The distorted, loud vocals and sounds do not allow to comprehend much of what is being shouted. Besides we’re seat on the floor, not pogoing. Then, the musical landscape changes, to an almost church like music level. The words become more perceptible, but still elude.

Dinner break. The communal meal is taken in the patio and garden, encompassed by nightfall.

Back inside we’re in the hands, and sounds, of percussionist Camille Émaille. There is a labour of love here. A meticulous, affable, strong, unxepected way of working with the various percussive instruments. We’re entering the domain of transcendence. Or so it seemed as it was, or looked like it, cut short. Were did time went? If flew by.

Time to go rest on a chair at the bar-gear room and marvel at the boxes with extraordinary, ordinary, objects. Until a last return to the concert room for Los Caballos de Dusseldorf light, image and sound show.

Los Caballos de Dusseldorf build their own funny instruments, the doorags (named after Arizona’s lo-fi blues duo Doo Rag) from toys and other devices which circuits’ are modified. Circuity bending is an art form and Los Caballos de Dusseldorf mastered it with a childlike musicality that matches their way of dress, their concept, wrapped in curious and appealing visuals.

Another rest, another marvel at the gear boxes at the bar-gear room.

The final act is in the garden. Drummer and percussionist Steve Hubback, under the lit trees, takes us further into the transcendent trip started by Camille Émaille. Most of us are in the dark, on the adjacent yard, separated from the “stage” by a low, thin wall that allows to see, or almost see, what is being played. What is being played is much more to be felt than to be seen. At least, that is how it was for me.

At a point I opened my eyes and though four drumsticks? Two at a hand? Nope, turns out it were five drumsticks. Don’t ask me how. Steve holds the answer. I can tell it each time Steve does something different and there is no point going to see him thinking it may be this or that or those. Oh, right, back to the transcendence, which is where I was when Steve’s performance ended. It was shamanic, otherworldly. A Summer’s night dream and elation.