Day: March 27, 2018

With the passing of time, more and more the mind is crossed by glimpses of awareness that lead to reflection and to suspend the frantic daily race towards that nothingness that, for everyone, becomes the final landing place. The work of the Portuguese Urze De Lume is a perfect representation of this patchwork of sensations, with the advantage that this dark folk melancholy and suffused paradoxically proves to be a panacea capable of soothing all the negativity accumulated previously. This Lisbon-based ensemble, founded by Ricardo Brito, reaches its third long-distance work with this As Árvores Estão Secas E Não Têm Folhas, whose title clearly evokes the autumn season to which the first part of this dilogy was dedicated, which began with the ep Vozes Na Neblina, released last year. The obscure folk matrix, clearly centred on acoustic instruments but also enriched by the intervention of traditional instruments, strings or wind, manages to carve out a well-deserved space for itself by virtue of its clarity, and, personally, for impact and involvement I would liken it to Marcel Dreckmann’s Wöljager, proving that good music with ethnic roots can always reach the hearts of listeners, regardless of the latitude from which it draws sap. The intention of Urze De Lume is clearly to make us travel back in time, bringing us back, at least virtually, to that inseparable cohesion between man and nature, which today more than ever is being questioned: As Árvores Estão Secas E Não Têm Folhas is the musical synthesis of this alliance that has held sway for millennia before the beginning of a crumbling that seems irreversible. Brito and his fellow adventurers allow us access to this space-time bubble in which the predominant feeling is melancholy, inherent in those who live in a country where fado is not just a musical genre but something deeply rooted in the DNA of its people. It is not worth resisting the acoustic caresses that Urze De Lume give us in the form of brilliant gems such as the title track, Da Tua Ausência, Margens Do Rio Outono or Longa A Noite: for the most sensitive souls, contemplating the colours and shades of autumn is virtual nourishment that can soothe the sense of emptiness that everyone carries with them, unconsciously or not.

2018 – Equilibrium Music