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Written in fRoots issue 196, 1999


ENCONTROS DA EIRA
Retalhos Da Tradição
Almasud ASUD 006 (1998)

ALMMA
Heresias
Almasud ASUD 005 (1998)

Feeling that community music-making was dying out in their Madeiran region of Camacha, the eight members of Encontros da Eira came together to play songs and dance music. With mixed vocals, in Portuguese, and traditional instruments - guitars of the braguinha, viola de arame and Spanish designs, rajão, mandolin, reco-reco, ferrinhos and bombo, plus electric bass - their first album delivers traditional material including game-tunes, a harvesting song, a medley of two major Madeiran forms, the bailinho and charamba, and several examples of a third, the mourisca, which has connections with Moorish slaves and with the music and dances of northwest Iberia.

      Almma’s first album seemed more like a collection of different ideas and contributions from members seeking and developing a tradition-rooted, contemporarily relevant Madeiran music than a band album. Heresias continues on that interestingly wandering path with much more assurance and consistency.
      The opening track has Marilia Andrade’s voice accompanied by viola de arame, mandolin, bass and percussion in a style not far from that of Encontros da Eira. Track two contrasts with a rock backdrop behind mandolin and strummed guitar, expanding into fuzzed guitar, then the album goes on to explore a wide range of approaches including gutty drums, solo guitar and viola, synth drones, repeat-echoing solo bass or breathy duduk.
      Singing is mainly by the versatile Andrade, with occasional group vocals and one item featuring Nuno Morna’s rough, soaring voice. The material and lyrics are partly traditional but predominantly new-made by band members, particularly wind-player Morna and viola and guitar players Tó Zé Cardoso and Manuel Rodriguez, stylistically reflecting Madeira’s position as a meeting place of Iberian, African and Arabian cultures and its present-day access to the wider world.
  

© 1999 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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