RODRIGO LEÃO SPEAKS ABOUT

“O MÉTODO”

I started writing down ideas for a new album during 2017, while I was touring Europe with Scott Matthew after releasing our CD “Life Is Long”.

As always with my creative process, my first steps are always very intuitive and not at all methodical! Some of my first ideas came to me in hotel rooms. In November of 2017 we recorded our first demos, but we still had our doubts.

After three very different albums – “A Vida Secreta das Máquinas”, which was all electronic, “O Retiro”, recorded with an orchestra and choir, and “Life Is Long” with Scott – I felt I needed to find new paths.

And I was feeling very influenced by composers like Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds or Max Richter.

This is where Federico Albanese, the much acclaimed Italian musician and composer, joined us. Me, and my regular co-producers Pedro Oliveira and João Eleutério, realised we need someone with fresh ears to join us, and we accepted the suggestion of my long-time friend and manager António Cunha to bring in an outside opinion.

At the same time we were invited to write music for an exhibition about the brain at Lisbon’s Calouste Gulbenkian museum.

On that project, which was co-produced by João Eleutério and Luís Fernandes, we learned a lot about electronic ambient sounds, and they proved very useful for this new record.

Our first working sessions were not easy, but we quickly found a method of working that brought us closer to the ideas we were looking for. Federico was very important in this; he suggested arrangements and instrumentation that helped get us there. We now had a clearer view of the minimalist, ethereal ambiance I was looking for.

This is the album on which I play the most piano ever! We also didn’t use the strings as much. This brought something new to the general sound of the project, as did a youth choir of 20 singers, which I’d thought of using very early in the project.

“O Método” is much leaner than my other albums. The sound is simpler, sparser, more self-contained. I also feel it is a little bit more spiritual; the music, being more ambient, takes us away from the day to day. I could explore a more naïf, childlike innocence that I felt now and then on previous albums.

For the songs. I did not want to use an existing language, I wanted to make up words so it would sound more abstract.

There are two exceptions. “The Boy Inside” was sung by Casper Clausen of Efterklang, who wrote the lyrics in English; Federico suggested asking him, and I knew and loved his work. “O Cigarro” is sung in Russian by Viviena Tupikova, who has played violin with me for a long time and wrote the lyrics as well. Another regular collaborator of mine, singer Ângela Silva, was very important with her suggestions for vocal arrangements and unusual way of singing made-up words.

The title changed during the recording, but “O Método”, “the method”, became the obvious choice. We were looking for a method to arrive at the final result, and Federico was very important in that process.

But I think it’s more interesting to see the method as more abstract, philosophical. Do we all have our own method to try and make something, communicate, feel, contribute?

The pieces on this album ask questions that don’t really have answers. A child points to the sky and asks: why are we here? Where do we go after we die? What is the meaning of life?

I like my music to ask questions, even if they have no answers. It means it communicates and says something to whoever hears it. It helps us think and dream. It moves us.

Rewatch “Gaivota”, the footage from the concert rehearsals done by Portuguese TV.

A project that joins Lina, a portuguese singer renowned for her haunting interpretations of Amália’s classic repertoire and Raül Refree one of the most innovative european producers (Rosalia or Lee Ranaldo’s Sonic Youth).

Analog synths and hushed sonics.

Making history by breaking the rules – record out by Glitterbeat – january 17th.

Acclaimed composer and maestro Rui Massena is one of the most successful artists of the actual Portuguese music scene right now – and confirms his unique status the same with his new and outstanding album. “III”, now released on Universal’s Deutsche Grammophon.

There are very few classical musicians that become bona fide stars in popular music. Rui Massena is one of those exceptions. As he sees it, there really are no differences between styles and genres – only music, a harmony of different attitudes, cultures and languages.

A life-long pioneer and defender of classical music and a maestro and pianist by training, Mr. Massena has performed in 14 countries with 30 orchestras, has conducted for José Carreras, Ute Lemper, or Wim Mertens, and was main guest conductor of the Rome Symphony Orchestra for three seasons. He has also received a number of distinctions, both as maestro (like the Cultural Merit Medals from the Brazilian Arts and Sciences Academy) and as a TV personality (his TV series “Música Maestro” was shortlisted for the Rose d’Or awards).

But this wasn’t enough his multi-faceted talent, and Mr. Massena knew his compositions required other settings, other backgrounds. With his first album, “Solo”, in 2015, recorded entirely on solo piano, his remarkable talent as a melodist was revealed to the world. Music that he himself describes as “tranquil, almost therapeutic”, strongly based on emotion. In 2016, he released “Ensemble”, partly recorded with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Inspired by the world-renowned village of Sintra, where the record was composed and partly recorded, “Ensemble” shot to #1 in the Portuguese charts. Its release was followed by two totally different tours: one, with a string section described as the Rui Massena Ensemble, closer to the orchestral sound of that album.

This was followed by a tour with the five-piece Rui Massena Band, a way to experiment live with electronic instruments and add new layers to his compositions, that served as the “testing ground” for new approaches. All these experiences come together in the new album. “III” is described by Mr. Massena as a “synthesis” of his career so far and “a new step forward”, recorded in two stages. In Berlin, Mr. Massena recorded all of the piano parts with the Grammy winner producer and engineer Tobias Lehman, with a special attention to the acoustics of the room and of the instrument – the same Steinway piano often used by the Berlin Philharmonic. In Oporto, Mr. Massena recorded with his stage band, looking for what he calls a “balance” between his many interests. “I tried to add some contemporary electronics to my classical training, and include a progressive, fusion process on the emotions of my previous albums. It was all about discovering new sounds and extending my language.”

“III” is, however, still unmistakably Rui Massena. “It’s a huge step forward for me as a composer. It is still my music; but it adds something new, shows me new paths I can take. In that process I found where I wanted to go.” “III” was mastered in New York by Grammy-winning engineer Joe Laporta and features seven new instrumental pieces. The album was released in Portugal by Universal on the Deutsche Grammophon label in November 2018. A tour is already planned for 2019 coinciding with the international release of “III” via Deutsche Grammophon.

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May 2018