Imagine an easy listening album of minimalist music played mainly on guitars with a little instrumental backing for colour and weight and a smoky-voiced Spanish vocalist and you have this intriguing album. The tunes are simple but modulated slightly through their length to provide variety to entice and capture the ear. Movimento Madredeus is not movie music but a collection of sixteen numbers mostly in a myserious and mystical and dreamy and romantic mood. The performers are Portuguese. The booklet gives English translations of all the numbers (but offers no other information) and the subjects range from romance (‘Echoes in the Cathedral’ – "…Your eyes are glass windows changing colour with the sky…I wish your eyes could see The love I feel for you…") to human and environmental concerns (‘Anxiety’ – "Anxiety of having a final vision of human society…"). Tempos quicken, rhythms tighten in ‘The Black Cape’ ("…I change from sadness to happiness and I laugh from so much crying…" and in Palpitation – in fact in this one the mood is quite a fiery of love frustrated. The performers play with enthusiasm and feeling and vocalist Teresa Salgueiro has an unusual voice that seems tailor made for these colourful numbers.
If you want a CD with a difference this is one for you. Ideal for summer dinner parties or late night listening.
Zara
EMI VALENTIM DE CARVALHO 5315902
[77:22]
