The Squid's Ear Magazine


Carneiro, Pedro / Pedro Melo Alves: Bad Company (Clean Feed)

The title a reference to a 1953 poem by Yasuoka Shotaro, this album instead finds excellent company in the Portuguese duo of percussionists Pedro Carneiro on marimba with quarter tone extension and Pedro Melo Alves on prepared drums, their informed and unhurried improvised dialog merging concepts and influences of contemporary compositional music in compelling ways.
 

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Pedro Carneiro-marimba with quarter tone extension

Pedro Melo Alves-prepared drums


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UPC: 5609063005745

Label: Clean Feed
Catalog ID: CF574
Squidco Product Code: 30563

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2021
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Orquestra de Camara Portuguesa (OCP), in Alges, Portugal on January 6th and 7th, 2021, by the artists.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Carneiro and Melo Alves aren't bad companions to each other, as you'll soon find out. The title of this recording comes from a story by Japanese writer Yasuoka Shotaro, reminding us how literature influences the creation of good music.

Percussionist, conductor and composer, Pedro Carneiro's main activity is in the realm of contemporary classical music, mostly with his huge bass marimba, either playing his own music or compositions by Iannis Xenakis or other 20/21 century radical composers. On the side, he's very much present in the field of free improvised music, with the likes of Carlos "Zingaro" and pianist Rodrigo Pinheiro, already known by the Clean Feed listeners as a member of Red Trio.

Pedro Melo Alves is the new prince charming of the Portuguese jazz scene, as a specially accomplished composer and drummer, with projects like Omniae Ensemble, In Igma (with Mark Dresser), The Rite of Trio and symph. Together, they engendered an opus which has everything of the best percussion music of these present days. This time, made totally in the moment, spontaneously and intuitively, even when it doesn't seem so. A very welcomed gem."-Clean Feed


Artist Biographies

"Pedro Carneiro is a Portuguese solo classical percussionist, marimba player, composer, and conductor. Pedro Carneiro is one of the very few percussion players to have made an international career as a soloist, and has established himself as one of the world's foremost solo percussionists, performing regularly throughout Europe, the Asia and the United States.

Carneiro has won several international competitions and awards, while performing regularly in festivals and venues such as the BBC Proms, Rhythm Sticks Festival, Queen Elisabeth Hall and Purcell Room in London, Sonorities Festival in Belfast, Macau International Music Festival, Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, New Zealand International Festival of the Arts, Capital Theatre in Beijing, La Biennale di Venezia, Folles Journées (Lisbon), Schumannfest in Düsseldorf, Festival Classique au Vert in Paris, amongst others. Mr. Carneiro has also performed recitals in cities such as London, Paris, Los Angeles, Hanover, Seville, Lisbon, Seoul and Hong Kong.

Carneiro is a frequent guest soloist with numerous orchestras: BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London Mozart Players, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Helsingborgs Symfoniorkester, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Régional de Basse-Normandie, Gävle Symfoniorkester and Portuguese Symphony Orchestra, to name but a few, working with conductors such as Petri Sakari, John Neschling, Ronald Zollman, Kaspar de Roo, Jurjen Hempel, Olari Elts, Andrew Parrott, Juanjo Mena, António Saiote, José Ramón Encinar, John Storgårds, Hamish McKeich, Max Rabinovitsj, Sarah Ioannides and Joseph Swensen, amongst others.

Pedro Carneiro has been heard and seen on radio and television stations throughout the world as well as releasing several solo recordings. As a guest teacher, Pedro has given masterclasses in many prestigious conservatoires and universities, such as the Royal College of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and Trinity College of Music in London, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, São Paulo State University in Brazil and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, to name but a few. He is the visiting professor of solo percussion studies at the Academia Nacional Superior de Orquestra in Lisbon.

Pedro Carneiro is the principal conductor and artistic director of the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Carneiro)
6/11/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Pedro Melo Alves is one of the most unsettled new minds in Portugal, avid for something more, yet unknown.

Having been awarded with the Bernardo Sassetti composition award in 2016, distinguished as the National Musician of the Year in 2017 by jazz.pt and in 2019 with the Premio Internazionale Giorgio Gaslini he's been increasingly present in the European music scene, presenting his projects in events such as 12 Points Festival (2018), European Jazz Conference (2018) or Jazzahead (2019).

Born in 1991, in Porto, Portugal, Pedro starts studying music in 2000. Enrolls at the Jazz Drums superior course in 2011 at the Porto Superior School of Music (ESMAE), having lessons with Michael Lauren and Carlos Azevedo, and leaves the course in 2013 to study classical and jazz piano with Abe Rabade and Daniel Bernardes. The participation on several workshops in Portugal, Spain and Italy led him to meet and study with some of the contemporary jazz scene figures, such as Danilo Perez, John Escreet and Ralph Alessi. Enters in 2015 on the Musical Composition superior course at the Lisbon Superior School of Music (ESML), where he studies with Sérgio Azevedo, José Luís Ferreira and António Pinho Vargas.

Today he plays as a drummer and composer in innovative modern jazz bands (Omniae Ensemble, The Rite of Trio, In Igma), contemporary electroacoustic projects (his solo O, CACO.MEAL or his trio symph), improvised music (with João Paulo Esteves da Silva, Luís Vicente, Theo Ceccaldi, Ricardo Jacinto, Jacqueline Kerrod, Pedro Branco), instrumental rock (Catacombe), soundtracks for Theatre and Dance (with Schaubühne's Peter Kleinert, Carlota Lagido or his own art collective Caos) and erudite composition."

-Pedro Melo Alves Website (https://pedromeloalves.com/about/)
6/11/2025

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Revelry 5:22

2. A Touch Of Self-Satisfaction 5:42

3. Restlessly In Circles 2:28

4. From A Starless Sky 6:24

5. A Secret Domain 2:33

6. Between Retreat And Return 2:38

7. A Totally Unexpected Joy 4:22

8. From Street To Street 6:24

9. Gross Exaggeration 2:59

10. Making A Veritable Religion 5:12

Related Categories of Interest:


Clean Feed
Improvised Music
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Percussion & Drums
Duo Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items
Squidco's Clean Feed 50% Sale

Search for other titles on the label:
Clean Feed.


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