A musician with a long-standing spiritual connection to this country, through various performances, participation in Gala Drop’s ‘Broda’, a song called ‘Lisboa’ or the heartfelt propagation of Carlos Paredes’ art around the world, Ben Chasny returns to ZDB in his long-lasting incarnation as Six Organs of Admittance. Well-known at the turn of the century with his eponymous debut, Chasny was and is one of the heralds of free music born out of disenchantment with the history of folk in North America. He already has a huge discography, both in this ‘solitary’ life and in bands as worthy as Comets on Fire, Badgelore or Rangda. Between fingerpicking acoustic lyricism and celestial electricity, Chasny has left his guitar with a unique lineage of constant search for the sublime, evident throughout this journey in discs that range from the poetic instrumentals of ‘For Octavio Paz’ to the nocturnal and psychedelic contemplation of ‘Dark Noontide’, to the soaring songs of ‘Compathia’, to the sunshine of these onslaughts in the classic ‘School of the Flower’ or to the latent mysticism in the aura and arrangements of ‘Luminous Night’.

Many years on from the buzz around ‘New Weird America’ and the freak/free folk community of which he was one of the centrepieces alongside names such as Matt Valentine and Erika Elder, Wooden Wand, Charalambides or Devendra Banhart, Chasny has remained unwavering in his quest, always creating a body of work that has nothing left to prove, but which refuses the resigned conformism of veteranism. Already in this decade, this alchemical troubadour and meta-guitar hero has left us with the droney landscapes and cosmic solos of ‘The Veiled Sea’ in 2021 and the more song-like purification of ‘Time is Glass’ to also embark on a transcendent union of his guitar and voice with Shackleton’s beats and percussive textures in the surprising ‘Jinxed by Being’ – which, following Flesh & The Dream’s ‘Choose Mortality’ with Heather Leigh, reveals the latter as a musician attentive to the current demand for artists of the aforementioned movement. An always celebrated visit from one of the most genuine magicians we have under this sky. BS

Cellist/guitarist Helena Espvall has built up a rich and diverse musical career in folk, experimental music and free improvisation. Originally from Sweden, she lived for several years in Philadelphia, USA, and has been living in Lisbon since 2012. She has been a member of the bands Espers and The Valerie Project, formed the duo Anahita with Tara Burke (AKA Fursaxa) and collaborated with musicians such as Vashti Bunyan, Damon & Naomi, Marissa Nadler, Bert Jansch, Mary Lattimore and Steve Gunn. He recorded two albums in Tokyo with Masaki Batoh, leader of the psychedelic band Ghost, which were released on Drag City Records. She is part of Lantana, a collective of female improvisers who have played at the Lisboa Soa, Jazz Ao Centro, Coimbra, Jazz 2020, Gulbenkian and Festa do Jazz 2022 festivals, and collaborated with Lula Pena. Espvall has also developed work on his own, playing solo concerts at Out.Fest, Casa do Comum, Lounge, Damas, ZDB and Panteão. She is currently a very active figure in Lisbon’s improvised music scene, collaborating with Norberto Lobo, Vítor Rua, Carlos Zingaro, David Maranha and Sei Miguel, among others. In September 2020, invited by Culturgest, she created a solo piece for acoustic guitar as part of the project ‘Abrindo o Livro dos Sons’, a tribute to the German composer Hans Otte. Recently, she has been recording and playing concerts with Tó Trips.