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Som Alvo

by Nuno Morão

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Paolo Sanna
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jorjazz
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    32
    releases

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    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Uniconga, Morna mansa, Umbra, Penumbra & Antumbra, Camarão-Girafa, Som Alvo, Directions, Barbatrama, Under the Sun • live 2019, and 24 more. , and , .

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1.
i want to say 02:08
2.
be-di-gu-be-da-gu 03:34
3.
look! 05:47
4.
playing all the time 02:38
5.
there are no ideas 03:24
6.
another day 08:00
7.
i want to catch the virus 01:54

about

disc 30 | 2022

Som Alvo is the first solo album by Nuno Morão. Recorded in 2018, it features seven songs that unveil a musical journey based on the timbral and polyrhythmic exploration of a 7-piece membranophone percussion kit.

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The story of "Som Alvo" can be told in a few words. In 2011, I was invited by Granular (a — unfortunately now extinct — Portuguese association dedicated to sound experimentation) to perform a solo in a concert series hosted at Culturgest. At that time, in addition to some percussion instruments, I also used field recordings, keyboards, wind instruments, a laptop, and video projections of photographs. I presented this project a few more times, but it ended up in hibernation for some years until, in 2015, I managed to have something I had not had in my life as a musician and sound engineer: a workspace in a studio (Scratchbuilt, at Rua da Bempostinha, in Lisbon). From that moment on, I dedicated myself more intensively to the idea and practice of having a solo project (though more focused on percussion), and that's what I worked on for several months.

In 2018, on a warm August night, after a good family dinner with some of my cousins, I returned to the studio and recorded about an hour and a half of material on my percussion kit consisting of seven membranophones: djembe, tom, bongos, conga, darbouka, floor tom, and adufe (a quadrangular portuguese membranophone). From that session, seven tracks were extracted, and they are a testament to my desire to timbrically and polyrhythmically explore a musical and sonic journey, now crystallized on record. This was made possible with the friendship and complicity of various persons: John Klima, studio partner and ingenious man who provided the beautiful microphones, console, and reverb unit; Tiago Martins, companion of sound recording adventures; António Poppe, poet and artist who contributed to the cover with a drawing from his "Livro da Luz" (Book of Light); Rita Thomaz, friend who did the graphic design; Oriana Alves, who witnessed the first incarnation of "Som Alvo" and was enthusiastic about its continuation; Rafael Alves Morão, my son, who (unknowingly) created the track titles; and Ana Teresa Ascensão, my love, who chose the typographic elegance that writes in my heart.

The album was released in April 2022 by OSSO collective, a structure dedicated to artistic creation. I played it, recorded it, mixed it, and mastered it. In 2024, may the goddesses (and me) be willing, I will publish another chapter of this (very well accompanied) solo journey.

— / — / — / — / — \ — \ — \ — \ —

"A abordagem de Morão a esta viagem percussiva centrou-se numa incursão polirrítmica por geografias tórridas e pulsantes – congruentes com “a quente noite de Agosto” em que a sessão de gravação foi realizada –, em que certos motivos rítmicos foram repetidos, com ligeiras variações de tempo, intensidade e até de forma, em progressão, ora gizando geometrias cromáticas ricas em ressonâncias e angulosidades, ora percorrendo planícies desérticas em que pelo caminho são invocadas tribos e identidades primitivas. Foram por aqui desenhadas trajectórias circulares, tautológicas, fruto de uma prática contínua de progressiva simbiose com o instrumento, que tanto originaram hipnóticas meditações, encantadoras mesmo da mais frívola das mentes, como rituais purgativos impregnados de voodoo e magia negra.
(...)
"Ouvintes habituados a música moldada com formas sonoras mais “tradicionais” – i.e., música melodizada e harmonizada – poderão ter dificuldade em transcender na musicalidade aqui presente, que é primeva, primordial. Ainda assim, “Som Alvo” é um álbum que logra atingir em pleno os objectivos a que se propôs, constituindo uma audaz viagem rítmica que combina harmoniosamente com uma tarde a ouvir 2 trabalhos seminais de 2 expoentes da percussão, curiosamente ambos lançados em 1966, viz., “Drums Unlimited” de Max Roach (Atlantic Records) e “Percussion Ensemble” de Milford Graves (ESP-Disk)."

in beatsforpeeps.com/2022/05/23/nuno-morao-som-alvo/, por João Morado.

credits

released April 4, 2022

Nuno Morão | solo percussion

percussion kit: djembe, tom, bongos, conga, darbouka, floor tom, adufe.


All music by Nuno Morão.
Cover drawing by António Poppe.
Artwork by Rita Thomaz.
Released in 2022 by OSSO Colectivo.

Recorded with Neumann U67 (x2), Neumann M 147 Tube (x2), AKG D-99 C “Harry” (1975), Shure SM 57, and a vintage (1940) Melodium 42B, through a Soundcraft 6000 console and a AKG BX-20 spring reverb.

Played and recorded (August 2018, ScratchBuilt) & mixed and mastered (May and June 2020, FISGAstudio) by Nuno Morão.

Thanks to John Klima, Tiago Martins, António Poppe, OSSO Collective, Oriana Alves, Rafael Alves Morão and Ana Teresa Ascensão.

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Nuno Morão Oeiras, Portugal

Músico e artista sonoro. Bateria, percussões, teclados e gravações-de-campo. Membro do colectivo OSSO. | Musician and sound artist. Drums, percussions, keyboards and field recordings. OSSO collective member.

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