New album out now: “Dentro Desse Mar” is the title of Danças Ocultas’ new album, recorded with the Brazilian musician and producer Jaques Morelenbaum, a regular collaborator of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Caetano Veloso or Mariza, and with the special participation of Fado diva Carminho.
“Dentro Desse Mar” is the basis for this acclaimed four-piece’s new stage concert, proposing a unique, highly original approach to the accordion: Danças Ocultas is a purely instrumental quartet using the diatonic accordion to create music that evokes tradition and folk influences while being of its own time. The critically acclaimed four-piece were one of the Womex 2010 highlights and have since performed all over the world.
More about Danças ocultas
Danças Ocultas propose a unique, highly original approach to the accordion: instead of using the “classic” version of it, they work with the diatonic accordion (also known in Portugal as the “concertina”), an instrument created in the first half of the 19th century that has seldom been used outside traditional music.
That is, until Danças Ocultas came along in 1989 and decided to produce a new, creative vocabulary for it, accepting its limitations and working with them to create a music that evokes tradition while being of its own time.
The four-piece of Artur Fernandes, Filipe Cal, Filipe Ricardo and Francisco Miguel had the good fortune to be taken under the wing of fellow accordionist Gabriel Gomes, then of Madredeus. Attracted by the challenge in their project, he offered to produce their debut album, released in 1996.
Since then, Danças Ocultas have never looked back. The constant traveling, the contacts made with musicians from all over the world, the continuous performances: all of it nourished and enriched the worldview of the project, with Artur Fernandes initially masterminding the writing side before all four musicians became co-writers and coarrangers.
The highly atmospheric, visual side of their music has led Danças Ocultas to be invited to write for dance and theatrical performances, and they have often collaborated with acclaimed choreographer Paulo Ribeiro for whom they have written a number of original dance pieces.
Danças Ocultas have released four studio albums as well as a collection of previously released material and a live recording made with the Orquestra Filarmonia das Beiras. This collection takes its name from the book journalist Jorge P. Pires wrote about the band, “Alento”.
The band has just released a new studio album, Dentro Desse Mar, with legendary Brazilian musician and producer Jaques Morelenbaum.
Press
“It was less of a concert but much more a musical lecture, a collective
breathing that you’re being part of and that you’re carried away with, in an
emotional, meditative dimension”.
Il Giornale di Vicenza, I, 2011
You walk into the darkened main concert hall and suddenly, all that falls away, there are four men on stage, and they are creating a space where you can relax, breath and luxuriate in beautiful sounds.””
Michal Shapiro on The Huffington Post, 2010
„Inventive and creative instrumental music by one of Europe’s best art music ensembles. Highly recommended!“
CD Roots 2007
“Danças Ocultas are very special – the interaction of these four accordionists is amazing. Their music is so full of tension that you did not realise how the time goes by. The music is excellently arranged and acts between very slow bits, where only one accordion is playing – creating an atmosphere of very loud silence – up to quite fast and very lively pieces. It is not easy to describe their music – you simply have to see them live to get an idea of what they are doing (or at least you should listen to their CD…) My personal highlight of the festival.”
Folkworld 2001