- The album was released on Friday, January 19, 2024, the year in which the fifth centenary of Luís Vaz de Camões is celebrated
- This project has the approval of Manifesto Cultural Interest from the Ministry of Culture
An unmistakable expressive voice. A spacious song based on Fado. A unique composition work based on Camões’ poetry. Here is “Fado Camões”, LINA_’s new album to be released worldwide on January 19th, by the German label Galileo Music, after three years ago surprising the world alongside Spanish producer and musician Raül Refree, on an album with a view to Amália, celebrated on stages across the globe.
LINA_ now returns in the company of British producer and musician Justin Adams, in what turns out to be a more personal album, based on Camões‘ lyrics, the composition of traditional fados and also written by the singer herself. According to her, the idea began to take shape after looking into Amália’s life and realizing that the poet she liked most was Camões. “I was curious, I wanted to know more, beyond the ‘Lusíadas’ or the ‘Sonnets’, and I discovered that Camões’ themes – change, childhood, love, lack of love or the description of nature – could be adapted to the fado and its metrics”.
A meeting between singer and poet that another poet and essayist, Nuno Júdice, describes as follows:
“To sing a perfect poem, just a perfect voice. How both are reconciled makes us hear, beyond times, instruments and words, the song of poetry itself. It is this miracle that we have in LINA_’s voice and in the musical recreation that we find throughout these songs. More than fado, more than a Portuguese identity, it is the return to that Iberian spirit that characterized Portugal until the 17th century that we are now seeing reborn, with the unprejudiced purity of an interpretation in which Portuguese and Galician come together in total harmony, as in the Galician-Portuguese origin of the two languages that are now autonomous.”
– Nuno Júdice –
There are justified expectations about this new work, after the recognition of the previous record – album of the year for the 2020 World Music Chart or Carlos do Carmo Award 2021, among many others – now opening a new chapter alongside Justin Adams, musician, composer and producer, known for productions for Robert Plant, Rachid Taha, Tinariwen, Jah Wooble or Souad Massi, or collaborations with distinguished names such as Brian Eno or Sinead O’ Connor. In one sentence: someone who has always been committed to this idea of mixing traditional with contemporary elements. Having grown up in Egypt, he promoted the meeting of the blues with the traditional dynamics of Maghreb music, and these influences are now carried over to his work with LINA_.
It is not surprising that the voice and chords of the Portuguese guitar, which take us back to Fado, coexist with a certain balance and Africanized atmosphere, as in “Quando vos veria“, or “In Labyrinth“, with the subtle presence of percussion in between. the voice, or on the loose side of “Desencontro”, while in “O que temo e o que desire”, a duet with Asturian folkloric agitator Rodrigo Cuevas, is an insinuating Latin rhythm that meets the chords of Fado.
It is, at the same time, a new and familiar LINA_ that we glimpse in the new work. The stripped-down elegance of the recent past is still there, but now there is a new spatiality, where the voice stands out among the piano, guitar and almost silence, creating other scenarios, with pain, justice and dignity, alongside, as in “Desamor ” or “My Lady”. In “Love is a fire that burns without being seen”, LINA_’s voice is suspended, in an atmosphere almost close to silence, just a few guitar chords and a digital fog as support, while in “Pois meu olhos não tire de cry”, concrete noises are integrated between piano notes, with Camões’ poetry revealing itself in scenarios of melancholy, but also of celebration.
In the studio were Pedro Viana, on Portuguese guitar, the Englishman John Bagott, who has worked with Massive Attack, Portishead or Robert Plant, on piano and keys, and Ianina Khmelik, on two songs, on violin.
“Raül and Justin are curious about discovering connections between the traditional and the contemporary, but this time the process was different”, reflects Lina. “In this case, I was the one who made the ‘demos’ at home and created the environments for each song, followed by the arrangements and production processes. It was arduous. That’s why it’s a record signed just by me. About the previous one, this one focuses more on the language, writing, poetry and structure of Camões’ poems that can be combined with fado. The other had more to do with the music, the sound, the textures”
– LINA_ –
A more personalized work, which does not mean, obviously, a range of less important collaborations, as happened with Amélia Muge, who in addition to being the author of the music and lyrics of the song “Senhora minha”, was an important voice in adapting the lyrics. “Nothing can be done alone”, says LINA_. “Amélia was very special. My shoulder on this path. Her opinions were fundamental. I learned a lot from her.”
On the tour that starts in January, LINA_ will be on vocals, synthesizers and percussion, Pedro Viana, on Portuguese guitar, Ianina Khmelik, on violin, acoustic piano and synthesizers, and it is expected that John Baggott will also be present on some dates. This does not invalidate the fact that LINA_ continues to perform assiduously at the Clube de Fado, in Lisbon, where she is a resident: “It is vocal and emotional training”, as she says, to achieve results like those of “Fado Camões”, where her vocal expression, and music, renew fado, and the soul of those who listen to it.
LINA TOUR_ 2024
JANUARY 19 – GROENINGEN (NL) – Eurosonic
30 JANUARY – LISBON (PT) – Teatro Trindade
FEBRUARY 17 – BEJA (PT) – Pax Júlia Theater
MARCH 12 – MADRID (ES) – Pavón Theater
MARCH 14 – LLEIDA (ES) – Change Festival
MARCH 15 – PARIS (FR) – Studio de l’Ermitage
MARCH 16 – BORDAEUX (FR) – Rocher de Palmer
MARCH 29 – OEIRAS (PT) – Ruy de Carvalho Auditorium
APRIL 13 – LUDWIGSBURG (DE) – Forum Am Schlosspark
31 MAY – DORTMUND (DE) – [Room to be confirmed]
5 JULY – FORDE (NO) – Førde Festivalen
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