Benjamim presented live yesterday, for the first time, his fourth feature film As Berlengas, which was attended by a sold-out room of fans and friends.
Berlengas are twenty tracks, with lyrics, music and production by Benjamim, which in 2022 were designed as a soundtrack for a film, which did not yet exist, a film that would be directed by Bruno Ferreira in 2023, with images captured in the archipelago that gives name to the project, a ballet film that takes place in an invented archipelago, through dance and sound.
During the performance of the concert, Benjamim explained:
“Involved in a limbo between loneliness and death, the music of As Berlengas seeks light and redemption from an invented mental space, a fantasy construction based on images of the archipelago that I had never visited – an exercise in escapism that ends up taking epic proportions in terms of size, format and ambition. The mysterious islands serve as an escape from reality, an escape from disillusionment with existence, the world, political division, the warming of the planet, uncertainty, anxiety caused by the challenges that today’s society poses, the search for an identity, the search for love or just a memory based on a storm or an invented constellation, with the name of someone who has already left for another cosmic dimension”.
The presentation of As Berlengas was made in two parts, Benjamim explained the first part as a journey in which “you disembarked from your own body, met people who were there, entered a tunnel that goes to the past and now arrived at the beach, at a crossroads, trapped, between the past and the future” and continued “this is an album, in this philosophy, we are going to play it live for the first time, with all the problems and risks that this entails, it was an album that was done for several years alone, at home, something similar to what is here, for 6/7 years, and it was very difficult to imagine, being here today, performing live, it is an honour to be here in this full theatre, thank you for have come” about the second part he added “we are on the beach, trapped between the past and the future, and now liberation comes”
The concert with only one interruption, which allowed us to experience this sound and visual journey of Benjamim’s music and Bruno Ferreira’s film, through the imaginary, beautiful, sad and happy world of Benjamim to which the dancers, Leonor Carneiro, Pedro Batalha, Beatriz Soares, Carolina Varela, Fabiana Injai and Marco Tavares added even more shine.
Benjamim was joined on stage by António Vasconcelos Dias on keyboards and choirs, João Correia on drums, Nuno Lucas on bass, Vera Vera-Cruz on keyboards and choirs and Manuel Pinheiro on percussions, who had the signature of the Força de Produção.
Setlist
- As Berlengas (Part 1) 07:14
- Scally 03:13
- Atrás da Barricada 05:39
- Furado Grande 04:41
- O Futuro Foi Cancelado 02:20
- Carreiro da Moxinga 02:54
- Cova do Sonho 01:56
- Pedra Negra 01:05
- Praia! 05:11
- A Grande Libertação 04:49
- A Rendição 04:29
- Constelação Alice 01:27
- Às Escuras 04:52
- Guitarras Eléctricas Interrompem o Romance 00:48
- Encontrar Lugar 03:50
- A Tempestade Delfim 03:33
- No Fundo da Intenção 03:46
- Rochedo (Ilhéu Maldito) 03:04
- À Partida 04:35
- As Berlengas (Part 2) 03:47
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