The artist who received a Latin Grammy Award for Musical Excellence unveils the single “Vozes do Além“, a progressive rock treatise in gestation since the 1990s. “Vou-te Amar para Além da Morte” transforms a poem by Arnaldo Trindade into a ballad titanic.
Between the Hammond organ and the Mellotron invocations, it would seem that José Cid has returned to the cosmic-musical place between Venus and Mars. However, there wasn’t in 10,000 Years Later a song like “Vou-te Amar para Além da Morte”: a straightforward power ballad with a packed stadium and a lighter up, without Meat Loaf modulations or melodramas—because you don’t need them.
“My life project is to surprise”, says the artist about the single, the only one to be extracted from the imminent Vozes do Além. Cid is no wonder it has a monstrous chorus, powerful enough to fill your chest and the radio waves. After all, it’s been more than 50 years since I’ve earned an honorary doctorate in the art of pop chorus… but there are other surprises.
There is something more cavernous and dissonant to accompany the verses: a sound purgatory adjusted to the words of Arnaldo Trindade (the founder of Orfeu, the publisher who launched Zeca Afonso, is one of several poets gathered in Voices from Beyond). “Arnaldo’s poem is so sublime, prophetic… It really comes from his soul”, confides the musician. “It’s about someone he’s loved all his life. He clings to the idea of reincarnation, in order to be with that person.”
Vozes do Além will be presented live in December, on the 17th (Porto, Hard Club) and the 18th (Lisboa, Capitólio), with a second part dedicated to the mythical “10.000 Anos Depois entre Vénus e Marte“.
