United by a frank and deep complicity for more than two decades, Margarida Garcia and Manuel Mota have been creating a singular path for both parties over the course of this season, which has crossed numerous times on stages, partnerships and discs. ‘Domestic Scene’, released this year by the American label Feeding Tube, after the 2019 release of ‘Oars’ on Mota’s Headlights label – responsible not only for the bulk of the guitarist’s always precious work but also for Garcia’s solo albums such as ‘Leaden Echo’ or ‘Der Bau’ – is further proof of the unique harmony between these two superlative artists. A blessed binomial that has also operated in larger formations such as Curia, in symbiotic collaborations with Marcia Bassett – tcp Zaimph, ex-Double Leopards or Hototogisu -, more ad-hoc encounters with musicians such as Noël Akchoté or Alfredo Costa in past Sei Miguel formations, as well as a sharing of knowledge and inspiration in solo albums or other adventures of both that is mirrored in the very monochrome graphics that haunt-illuminate many of these records. Many, many stories in common, yet to be properly told.
Always unveiling new forms of expression, without abruptly cutting off everything that has gone before, ‘Domestic Scene’ probes uncharted territory through a haze where Mota’s electric guitar and Garcia’s bass become entangled in a whole of suspended lyricism, where languid notes are patiently released in a progression without demarcated beginnings or ends. As if erected to silence, the reverberated and hallucinatory sounds of these strings both reveal themselves to the light and hide in its shadow, in a liminal state that never imposes a moment of decision or rupture, but rather reveals itself with each gesture, guided by a coy spectral melancholy. From the echoes of the basement to the sensation of infinity. An infinity that is also a projection of these two souls. BS
