Som Alvo by Nuno Morão

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.

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

Músico e engenheiro de som. Bateria, percussões, teclados e gravações-de-campo. | Musician and sound engineer. Drums, percussions, keyboards and field recordings.

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