“O Que For” is the return of the Almost Nicolau. So much new that brings and foretells, perhaps it can be called a restart.
The five friends who give the name Quase Nicolau – Francisco, Gonçalo, Melo, Nuno and Zé – joined together by the will to compose and sing songs in Portuguese and harmony, coming from both classical training and jazz as folk, rock and blues learned at home. After a year and a half, they debuted with Alvorada (2021), a set of five songs from night to day, made under the tutelage of the renowned José Moz Carrapa (António Variações, Rui Veloso, ZARCO). Alvorada earned the band several distinctions, including the selection, by open competition, for the Festival Emergente 2021 and the arrival of the theme “Pouco, Tanto” on the podium of FNAC Novos Talentos 2022. After passing through stages such as the Casa do Capitão and the Malaposta Cultural Center, the cycle of Alvorada ended in a big way, with concerts at the FNAC Live 2023 Festival and the Paredes de Coura 2023 Festival.
The making of the first full-length album began. From June 2023 to April 2024, the band met with producer João Correia (Tape Junk, Lena d’Água, Benjamim, Bruno Legs) to work on eleven songs that had been written as parts of a whole. It was a process that, crossing all seasons of the year, brought the discovery of a new sound, by crossing the choral arrangements and acoustic and electric tones of Alvorada with samples and electronic manipulations, as well as with the participation of pianist Vasco Robert and saxophonist João Capinha. On the instruments are songs even more urgent and intimate than before, among which are both the most impressive moments of the band’s discography as their singles.
Everything starts again now, with “O Que For”. The penultimate theme of the album which integrates and anticipates, is a song of acceptance and affirmation of life itself without forgetting its dichotomies. Here, the metaphors and tender images of nature are sung by the resplendent choirs in which the Quase Nicolau find much of the joy of making music, surrounded by ever-changing instrumental waves, of guitars in unusual tunings and violas amarantinas to the piano manipulated until it is another instrument.
The music is accompanied by a vídeo performed by the band – three elements of which were formed in cinema – and filmed by director of photography Martim Varela (Prisma, Santiago) in a single day on the edge of summer in the city of Lisbon.
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