The Squid's Ear Magazine


NAO (Vaz / Silva / Marques): Arcana (Shhpuma)

With sections of dark grooves, wild free improv, seething electronics, and even moments of "Set the Controls..." surrealism, the trio of Alexandre Vaz on keys, guitar & saxophone, Joao Silva on synths & drum machine, and Vasco Marques on bass & synth, take their listeners on an unexpected and wide-ranging journey of uneasy and informed, rich exploration.
 

Price: $13.95



Quantity:

In Stock

Quantity in Basket: None

Log In to use our Wish List
Shipping Weight: 2.00 units

Sample The Album:





product information:

Personnel:



Alexandre Vaz-keys, tenor saxophone, guitar

Joao Silva-synths, drum machine

Vasco Marques-bass, synth


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 5609063800517

Label: Shhpuma
Catalog ID: SHH051
Squidco Product Code: 27354

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Scratch Built Studio, in Lisbon, Portugal, on June 24th, 2018, by John Klima.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Formed by three of the most active protagonists of the new generation of experimental musicians in Portugal, the trio Nao ("No" in English, a term chosen precisely because it should be used more often) proposes in "Arcana" a musical vision born in the crossroads of what seems to be industrial rock and what seems to be free jazz (it's never clear).

Poli-instrumental in its nature, with keyboards, synthesizers and a drum machine inhabiting the saturated sound spectrum with a tenor saxophone and an electric guitar, the music here proposed is the syncretic next step of several styles and tendencies in urban music today: you can relate it either to exploratory electronic music or to progressive groove, but they do it in the same exact compositions. If your understanding of these parameters is what you hear from Supersilent, forget it - what distinguishes Nao is the crude way they get to the point.

There's no cosmic trips or psychedelic introspections over a beat line, but a very honest, in-your-face, almost punk-ish, dramatization of a nightmare, each minute coming with a surprise. When you expect something to follow, Alexandre Vaz, Joao Silva and Vasco Marques trick you and choose some other path. Are you prepared for this dark kind of aural beauty?"-Shhpuma


Artist Biographies

João Silva is a Portuguese musician who performs on tibetan bell, seng gong, shruti box, &c.

-Squidco, Creative Sources 3/13/2024

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

Vasco Marques is a Portuguese bassist and electronic musician known for the band Procyon.

-Squidco 3/13/2024

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


Track Listing:



1 Arcana 52:22

Related Categories of Interest:


Clean Feed
Improvised Music
Electro-Acoustic
Sound, Noise, &c.
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Trio Recordings
New in Experimental & Electronic Music

Search for other titles on the label:
Shhpuma.


Recommended & Related Releases:
IKB
Rhinocerus
(Creative Sources)
One of Portugal's most interesting large scale lowercase ensembles led by violist Ernesto Rodrigues, with frequent Creative Sources collaborators including Nuno Torres on alto sax, Carlos Santos on electronics, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Miguel Mira on bass, 14 musicians move with subtlety in a tapestry of electroacoustic resonance and mystique.
Rodrigues / Mira / Almeida / Silva / Parrinha / Lencastre / Goncalves / Oliveira
Spiegel III
(Creative Sources)
The third Spiegel, or mirror, takes the Portuguese acoustic octet led by violist Ernesto Rodrigue through an extended improvisation and its reflection, captured live at the 2021 CSFest XV, at O'Culto da Ajuda, by performing and recording their performance in a first pass, and then playing over the first improvisation, layering and extending their work.
Rodrigues / Silva / Hencleeday
Nightwalk
(Creative Sources)
A reductionist set of spartan improvisation performed live at Casa da Cultura, in Setubal, Portugal in 2021 from the trio of Ernesto Rodrigues on viola, João Silva on trumpet and Andre Hencleeday on piano, applying extended techniques on their instruments in a dark night, quiet but intently close listening conversation from three authoritative voices.
Rodrigues / Rodrigues / Almeida / Hencleeday / Parrinha / Parrinha / Santos / Valinho
Spiegel II
(Creative Sources)
The concept of a spiegel, or mirror, is explored by this perceptively patient electroacoustic octet led by violist Ernesto Rodrigues, each of the 3 tracks an evolution of the first recorded improvisation, the 2nd "Spiegel" layering and reacting to the first recording, and the 3rd to the previous two, ultimately reflecting a conversation of 24 virtual musicians.
Diceros
Symbolic Boundary
(Creative Sources)
An electroacoustic octet drawn from the collaborative community surrounding Creative Sources, captured live during the Small Format Materials Festival at Galeria Monumental, in Lisbon in 2019, a subtle and substantial work of intimate tension and quietly detailed interaction, seemingly minimalistic yet dynamically a narrative evolution of sublime patience.
IKB
Dracaena Draco [2 CDs]
(Creative Sources)
Two CDs representing two extended improvisations of the IKB Ensemble with slightly different personnel, with each ensemble slowly unfolding an amazingly textured work of acoustics and electronics with strong intent and incredible technique, balanced by close listening and attention to detail; an excellent 21st century improvisation orchestra captured live.
Variable Geometry Orchestra
Mare Tranquillitatis
(Creative Sources)
A dynamic and exciting concert captured during the 2018 CreativeFest XII of a conduction by Ernesto Rodrigues leading an ensemble of 28 free improvisors performing on a mix of traditional acoustic & modern electronic instruments, plus a toy piano, with powerful wind & string sections, as Rodrigues directs the musicians into both passionate and peaceful sections.
Isotope Ensemble
Radium
(Creative Sources)
Recorded at CreativeFest#12 in Lisbon at O'Culto de Ajuda, the 21-piece electroacoustic ensemble Isotope takes on the chemical element Radium in a gripping piece of evolving improvisation, intensely restrained and extremely detailed, orchestrated with cello, baroque violin, double bass, acoustic & electric guitars, zither, psaltery, winds, brass, keys, electronics and percussion.
IKB
Paradoxurus hermaphroditus
(Creative Sources)
Recording at the 12th CreativeFest at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, Portugal, the IKB ensemble is represented by 20 musicians for this performance, merging acoustic and electronic instruments including strings, brass, winds, self-made instruments, and percussion in a concert of intense constraint & patience, seething with detail and replete with consummate skill.
Rodrigues, Ernesto
Spiegel
(Creative Sources)
Two sets across two nights during CreativeFest #12 at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, Portugal, in a septet of six acoustic sources--viola, cellos, flute, trumpet, piano and percussion--and electronics, an extended journey approached with quiet tension and incredible detail, the recording of the first set used as the basis for the 2nd to create a virtual ensemble.
Other Recommended Releases:
Hex and Doravideo
Multi
(Wetware)
The core duo of Danish trance/noise artists, guitarist Lars Bech Pilgaard also on organelle & driftbox, and drummer Anders Bach, also on plumbutter (a drum and drama machine) join with Acid Mother's Temple modular synth wizard Ichiraku Yoshimitsu, aka Dora Video, for eight impressive works of free-form rhythm and sound, sonic collage with far-ranging influences.
Killing Popes, The (Steidle / Mobus / Nicholls / Downes / Donkin)
Ego Kills
(Shhpuma)
An incredibly inventive album of 21st century jazz incorporating a twisted wealth of rock and electronic elements, in the 2nd album from Killing Popes led by drummer Oli Steidle and keyboardist Dan Nicholls, with Frank Mobus (guitar) and Phil Donkin (bass), Philipp Gropper (saxophone), Jelena Kuljic (voice & sampler) plus Natalie Sandtorv & Liv Nicholls on voice.
Lobo, Joao (Lobo / Lobo / Kempeneer)
Simorgh
(Shhpuma)
Drummer Joao Lobo's trio with guitarist Norberto Lobo and double bassist Soet Kempeneer perform the drummer's dynamic compositions, along with one traditional works, a tight trio of highly interactive playing and a sense of familial interplay as the band weaves around Lobo's layered drumming and emphatic grooves, taking time for introspection among their energetic spontaneity.
D. L., Jean (w/ Hermant / Ranaldo / Young)
Forays
(Shhpuma)
A set of beautiful electro-acoustic compositions, dream-like and rich in details using sources of acoustic instruments, field recordings, guitar, electronics and voice, organized into hazy and beautiful reflections, with contributions from Margaret Hermant on xylophone & violin, Jeremy Young on electronics, and Lee Ranaldo providing field recordings and voice.
Toned (Corder / Suarez / Weeks)
The Private Sector
(Shhpuma)
Schizophrenically skronky improv of ea-cutups and semi-maniacal segments that resolve to near-stillness from the West Coast TONED trio of Nathan Corder on electronics, Leo Suarez on drums, and Tom Weeks on sax, using a nonlinear and nonhierarchical organizational process and multiple layers of compositional feedback loops to create unpredictably bizarre and overtly fun music.
Kalman, Egil / Fredrik Rasten
Weaving a Fabric of Winds [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)
Swedish bass player Egil Kalman, here on modular syntheizer, joins Norwegian guitarist Fredrik Rasten, for a lovely album of drifting electronics and beautifully entwining acoustic guitar, unhurriedly developing environments of warm, slowly evolving chord structures that show influences from players like Catherine Lamb or the Wandelweiser collective.
Kalman, Egil / Fredrik Rasten
Weaving a Fabric of Winds
(Shhpuma)
Swedish bass player Egil Kalman, here on modular syntheizer, joins Norwegian guitarist Fredrik Rasten for a lovely album of drifting electronics and beautifully entwining acoustic guitar, unhurriedly developing environments of warm, slowly evolving chord structures that show influences from players like Catherine Lamb or the Wandelweiser collective.
Oddly Imploded (Gregoretti / Argenziano)
They Just Sit About
(Shhpuma)
Italian sonic explorer Francesco Gregoretti uses his drumkit like a lead instrument, amplifying and modifying its sound through effects, as he pursues his varied "Imploded" bands (Strongly Imploded, Grizzly Imploded) fueled by the mathematics of Chaos Theory, here with guitarist Maurizio Argenziano in an album of dense sound, from near-minimal to highly interactive.
Steidle, Oli & The Killing Popes (Steidle / Mobus / Nicholls / Downes / Donkin)
Ego Pills
(Shhpuma)
Rapid fire playing and a wicked humor fuels drummer Olie Steidle's album with guitarist Frank Mobus, keyboardists Kit Downes and Dan Nicholls, and bassist Phil Donkin, mashing together electro-jazz, art rock, hardcore and club music into upbeat and twisted music, building up to a narrative "Speed Junky on Funny Human Darts"; insanely embraceable and stunning.
Hein, Nicola L.
The Oxymothastic Objectar
(Shhpuma)
Using an electric guitar, preparations, and objects as a tool of reflection, Nicola L. Hein presents an album of philosophical bent, about the question of skepticism in music, or a skeptical form of improvisation, through tumultuous playing of impressive technique caught live at Spectrum in NYC, as each track title presents observations or questions that Hein seeks to resolve.
Hifiklub
E Lisboa
(Shhpuma)
A collaborative French instrumental rock band led by and with compositions from the core quartet of Anthony Belguise (drums), Jean-Loup Faurat (guitar), Regis Laugier (bass) and Nico Morcillo (guitar), with a list of 22 international guests across 8 songs and instrumentals, including Rafael Toral, Maria Radich, Paulo Furtado, Carlos Zingaro, Rui Carvalho, &c.
Knalpot (Fanoli / Jager / Caron)
Dierendag
(Shhpuma)
Sporting a strange sense of humor and blending rock and improvisation, instrumentally this Amsterdam is the duo of Raphael Vanoli on guitar, synth, & electronics and Gerri Jager on drums, synths, & electronics, with Sandor Caron providing sound design, here in an album of stylistic amalgamations of unexpected and upbeat rhythmic oddity and fun melodic inventiveness.
Albatre (Costa / Almeida / Ernstring)
The Fall Of The Damned
(Shhpuma)
Rotterdam based band comprising two Portuguese players--Gonccalo Almeida on bass and Hugo Costa on sax--and German drummer Philipp Ernsting, the trio adding electronics, keys and effects, in their third album slamming hard free jazz and rock angst into a controlled chaos, a maelstrom of powerful riffs, rugged soloing, and mesmerizing grooves.
Diceros (Rodrigues / Mira / Silva / Curado / Almeida / Chagas /...)
3 Phases (III) Black
(Creative Sources)
"3 Phases", or 3 aspects of the approach that violist Ernesto Rodrigues applies to improvisation, in 3 different groupings over 3 different concerts at O'Culto da Ajuda, in Lisbon, here in an electroacoustic ensemble with Miguel Mira, Guilherme Rodrigues, Joao Silva, Eduardo Chagas, Paulo Curado, Noel Taylor, Miguel Almeida, Andre Holzer, Andre Hencleeday, Carlos Santos, and Joao Valinho.
Humcrush (Storlokken / Stronen)
Enter Humcrush [VINYL]
(Shhpuma)
After a six year break, the Humcrush duo of Stale Storlokken on keys and Thomas Stronen on drums & electronics return with this studio album of rhythmic angularities and experimental sound worlds, drawing on their experiences with bands including Supersilent, Food, Elephant9, Time is a blind guide, Meadow and Motorpsycho.
IKB
Rhinocerus
(Creative Sources)
One of Portugal's most interesting large scale lowercase ensembles led by violist Ernesto Rodrigues, with frequent Creative Sources collaborators including Nuno Torres on alto sax, Carlos Santos on electronics, Guilherme Rodrigues on cello, Miguel Mira on bass, 14 musicians move with subtlety in a tapestry of electroacoustic resonance and mystique.



The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

© 2002-, Squidco LLC