The Squid's Ear Magazine


NAO (Vaz / Silva / Marques): Arcana (Shhpuma)

With sections of dark grooves, wild free improv, seething electronics, and even moments of "Set the Controls..." surrealism, the trio of Alexandre Vaz on keys, guitar & saxophone, Joao Silva on synths & drum machine, and Vasco Marques on bass & synth, take their listeners on an unexpected and wide-ranging journey of uneasy and informed, rich exploration.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Alexandre Vaz-keys, tenor saxophone, guitar

Joao Silva-synths, drum machine

Vasco Marques-bass, synth


Click an artist name above to see in-stock items for that artist.




UPC: 5609063800517

Label: Shhpuma
Catalog ID: SHH051
Squidco Product Code: 27354

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: Portugal
Packaging: Cardboard Gatefold
Recorded at Scratch Built Studio, in Lisbon, Portugal, on June 24th, 2018, by John Klima.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Formed by three of the most active protagonists of the new generation of experimental musicians in Portugal, the trio Nao ("No" in English, a term chosen precisely because it should be used more often) proposes in "Arcana" a musical vision born in the crossroads of what seems to be industrial rock and what seems to be free jazz (it's never clear).

Poli-instrumental in its nature, with keyboards, synthesizers and a drum machine inhabiting the saturated sound spectrum with a tenor saxophone and an electric guitar, the music here proposed is the syncretic next step of several styles and tendencies in urban music today: you can relate it either to exploratory electronic music or to progressive groove, but they do it in the same exact compositions. If your understanding of these parameters is what you hear from Supersilent, forget it - what distinguishes Nao is the crude way they get to the point.

There's no cosmic trips or psychedelic introspections over a beat line, but a very honest, in-your-face, almost punk-ish, dramatization of a nightmare, each minute coming with a surprise. When you expect something to follow, Alexandre Vaz, Joao Silva and Vasco Marques trick you and choose some other path. Are you prepared for this dark kind of aural beauty?"-Shhpuma


Artist Biographies

João Silva is a Portuguese musician who performs on tibetan bell, seng gong, shruti box, &c.

-Squidco, Creative Sources 11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

Vasco Marques is a Portuguese bassist and electronic musician known for the band Procyon.

-Squidco 11/20/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1 Arcana 52:22

Related Categories of Interest:


Clean Feed
Improvised Music
Electro-Acoustic
Sound, Noise, &c.
Electro-Acoustic Improv
Free Improvisation
European Improvisation, Composition and Experimental Forms
Trio Recordings
New in Experimental & Electronic Music
Squidco's Clean Feed 50% Sale

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The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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