Manuel Giao es un guitarrista y modificador de instrumentos que opera desde Barreiro, en Portugal. Su trabajo, según sus palabras influenciado por la primera música industrial, el free-jazz, el "drone" y el rock mas abstracto, busca su inspiración mas extrasonora en la relación entre el hombre la naturaleza. Las 2 piezas que componen su disco "Grandonda" no son una excepción: atmosferas majestuosas y levemente psicodélicas, realizadas en base a su guitarra y efectos, que parecen clamar a las montañas que rodean su tierra.
Could music still be mind-touching if played through unconventional ways?
Would opposite values such as beauty and horror still be present and
reasonable if the border between pleasantness and bothersome was pushed
away?
Manuel Gião is a musician who believes in a healthy relationship between
those opposites. Born in 1984, in Portugal, and based on Barreiro, the land
where things happen even if not felt by anyone, Manuel is currently living near
Estrela's mountain range, the country's highest point. He carries with
"Grandonda" this uncommon, godlike feeling that relies on the interrelation
between Man and the mountain: the sense of domination and worship to that
act of Nature. Regarding Estrela, as a way of illustrating this relationship, a
portuguese writer called Miguel Torga (1907-1995) once wrote on the "Beira"
chapter of his book entitled "Portugal" the following words:
Actually, everytime I visited, looked and investigated, trying to understand it, I spinned around and around, and always around the same polarizer strength: Estrela.
Miguel felt and wrote it down; Manuel does the same in “Grandonda”, through
another means of expression: translating and witnessing that superior, huge
worship to one of Nature's greatest act.
"I like to think of music as a way to express feelings and visual / mental
places. Therefore, it can be harshly noisy, nerve-racking and / or quiet, an
ensemble of good, pleasant perceptions. It depends on what's the visual /
mental place one is looking at. It depends on what you want to achieve as a
human being.”
Both tracks were recorded by Manuel on March 2008 at BlackBox rehearsal
room, situated in Bairro Alto, Lisbon.
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