Woman of a presence and music as intangible as telluric, Lula Pena has developed a unique work with the calm and patience of the blessed, in counter-current with any notion of careerism. With the rhythm of one song per year, Pena has raised a very own aura. Invoking fado, bossanova, or tango, her music transcends cartographies and tropes of the genre, sustaining these references in a pan-global dimension, where the guitar and Lula’s haunting voice becomes the means for belief and revelation. Having debuted with the already mythical ‘Phados’ in 1998, it reappeared after a solitary rescue in 2010 with the stunning ‘Troubadour’ and again in 2017 with ‘Archivo Pittoresco’, with the edition of the very respectable and always attentive Crammed Discs. All in good time, every time.

In an unusual encounter, Lula Pena embraces her gravitational center to the work of João Simões – and vice versa. An artist born in Luanda and already with a long journey between installation or video and whose work has been widely discussed and praised by numerous publications and critics. Having exhibited in countless venues of respect, he has also been a guest teacher and lecturer at several renowned schools on both sides of the Atlantic. He is a very distinctive/peculiar figure, a requirement for a tag team that leaves us particularly eager for all its possibilities. BS

An unstoppable saxophonist and vital energy for various movements in various cities, Pedro Sousa has a rare and natural ability to inhabit and puzzle multiple musical spheres. From the passage of jazz in various forms to the more risky electronics, biased rock, and improvisations without name or place, his work never loses the collection/treasury and personal stamp of the most honest and nonconformist. From the long-standing partnership with Gabriel Ferrandini – in duo, Volúpias, Casa Futuro, or more or less perennial formations – to EITR, occasional collaborations with bands like Black Bombaim to the most recent alliance with Simão Simões. And so on, back and forth in an expansive network that has sublimated a language as continually new as it is singular. Blessed craft.

A particularly wild open field for this continued exploration and increased confidence has been his solo work. Exile that comes to light in occasional apparitions, sculpted with a sense of vision that carries with electronic processing and amplification without entering into electro-acoustic school mannerisms, neither surrendered to a loop or lazy sound accumulation. Breath, technique, and lyricism are always active, whether in poetic phrasing, in careful use of extended techniques or circular breathing, electrified with a measure and an end, which makes his music something that is not jazz, neither drone nor freeform improvisation, but breathes the essence of all of them. For São Luiz, he also brings on stage a 16mm modified projector to be amplified and controlled in real-time. With all the fit. BS