“The song “Terra Prometida” was born out of the desire to help the most fragile part of a war and bring cultures together with the purpose that we are all born equal, even in the diversity of religion, culture…
In January 2022 I had the opportunity to learn about the reality of Afghanistan and the Taliban coup through the history of the Afganistan National Institute for Music (Anim) and its Director who managed to save more than 270 students making them flee to Portugal. This new Russia-Ukraine conflict confirms the importance that we can all contribute in some way to help causes that touch us deeply. This is my, our contribution.
The idea of the project and this theme now presented, materialize with the meeting of the author of the lyrics, Tiago Torres da Silva.
In the development of the project (with the creation of the Sonos Terra Association) and in order to obtain the recording of this first song “Hino”, I called on some of the best Portuguese and Lusophone voices, with whom I had already collaborated (Dulce Pontes, Maria Anadon, Paulo de Carvalho, Jorge Fernando, Ana Lains, FF… ) to which other great voices of singers joined enthusiastically.
Another idea was to bring together the voices of refugee children in the chorus of the theme, with children with scholarships from Escola Jazz do Barreiro and with my students.
That’s why the instrumental part, in addition to Portuguese musicians (me on cello, guitar and string programming, Armindo Neves on electric guitar, Luis Pinto on bass, Ivo Martins on drums and João California on keyboard) I called three of these refugee musicians (Ustad Fazel Sapand on Sitar and tablas, Jamal Hashemi on acoustic piano and Rahman on udu) from the refugee reception center in São João da Talha, who were part of this Institute.
The theme “Promised Land” in my idea is a hymn to peace and the inclusion of all cultures through children and I wish it to be a first step towards helping them. This is a “cry” for war, famine and poverty to be eradicated.”
– Davide Zaccaria
