Owner of a nomadic existence in both body and spirit, Elvin Brandhi returns to this country, where she lived for a time, for a joint residency with our well-known Pedro Alves Sousa. A figure of multiple collaborations, across space, time and languages, Brandhi has, throughout her uninterrupted and unpredictable journey, aligned herself with artists as diverse as Pat Thomas, Drew McDowall, Sara Persico and Lord Spikeheart, traversing apparent boundaries between free improvisation, song, noise and unfathomable spaces. With her multidimensional voice and productions, she has created a unique aura of her own, with infinite scope for magical invocations, pre-verbal abstraction, enchanted harmonies or guttural noises. Punk and magic. On this occasion, and for the first time as a duo, she joins forces with the composer, improviser and saxophonist Pedro Alves Sousa: a recognisable and recognised figure in countless scenes across this city, himself an intrepid explorer of the fringes of genre and form, in constant flux, whether in his solo work or in the countless bands he has conceived or is part of — Má Estrela, Canibal Camy, CAVEIRA, Força Maior, etc. — and more or less occasional collaborations with artists such as Violeta Azevedo, Wouter Jaspers or Adriana João. With little to prepare us for what lies ahead, we might even consider Brandhi’s participation in Má Estrela’s ‘All You Did’ as a foreshadowing of this residency, but given the nature of these two personas, it is best to let go of expectations and venture into the unknown. Just as they have done so well.
BS