Pedro Fortunato – Albaluna’s music is not easy to categorize. If you had to place an Albaluna record on the shelves of a store, where would you put it?
Christian Marr’s, bassist and lyricist, on behalf of Albaluna – That’s a question that has been following us for quite a while now. It’s actually a topic that we frequently discuss among ourselves. Albaluna has been in a constant transformation in the past ten years, which was when we began. In the first years Albaluna could easily be placed in the European folk shelf. Our first album Alvorada da Lua proves it so, in my opinion.
With time and internal changes, the band absorbed many other influences and assumed different ways of composing and performing. By the time the second album Nau dos Corvos came out, back in 2016, the world music concept became a lot more obvious, with Mediterranean music, which includes traditional Turkish, medieval Iberian, Jewish, Arabic, and Balkan music playing a heavy part in the style of the group.
What also took a very important role in this metamorphosis was the constant curiosity and investigation regarding ethnic music, a quest headed by Ruben Monteiro, the founder and main composer of this group. This obviously influenced all of us to embrace these new approaches and instruments.
History serves a lot as a background for us, and we are very often dedicated to it in order to learn more about the places that influence us. Another thing that also inspired Albaluna was touring. The last three or four years have taken us to countries such as India, Italy, Morocco, Montenegro, Germany, China. It has been magnificent to have the opportunity to experience all this and learn so much from so many different cultures. I have been talking of folk, world music, Mediterranean music, but there’s another big genre in this band’s spirit, which is progressive rock. This is what provides the group’s solid and energetic sound, the strong background. Beside ethnic and ancient instruments as the Turkish baglama, the Iberian bagpipes, the Arab darbuka or the medieval vielle, you can find a modern sound, carried out by the drums, the keyboards and the electric bass. Here lies the contrast that legitimizes our fusion.
Our latest album Amor, Ira & Desgosto is the perfect example of this. If you go through the whole album, you stumble upon various ambiences, which may take you to India, or to medieval Europe, or to the prog soundscapes that have entered our spirits through some of the prog rock and metal bands.
To conclude this, I don’t think we fit perfectly into one particular genre. On one hand, that makes it difficult to focus on one specific set of events or festivals. On the other hand, the versatility of the bands’ distinct types of shows becomes really positive since we can easily adapt into performing in different contexts. Still, ethnic prog is a term that has been making sense to describe our music. Nevertheless, I think what is really important is that people enjoy what they’re listening to, whether it is folk, world music or prog rock.
Pedro Fortunato – How important is the influence of world music, especially that of the Mediterranean, in the band’s compositions?
Christian Marr’s – As I just said, the band is obviously a fusion of concepts. There are two main worlds in Albaluna: the ethnic side and the prog rock side. And inside the first one, Mediterranean music really stands out as a major influence. This because our country, Portugal, and the whole Iberian Peninsula, are a very curious case of what you can call “cultural fusion”.
Historically, this territory has been inhabited and influenced by numerous tribes, countries, religions, empires, etc. Greeks, Romans, Germanic Tribes, Jews, Arabs, Romani… you name them! Even the African slaves and merchants from all over the world played a part in defining our culture. And when you have something like that, you can easily comprehend the cultural continuum that bonds all countries of the Mediterranean. Because if you take out all borders, there lies a connection in costumes, folklore, food, music. Even in religion. Christianity, Islam and Judaism come from a common area and mind-set. And the cultures they generated fit, despite historical and political divides.
Portugal, although not being directly connected to that sea, is undoubtedly a Mediterranean country, because of the links and cultural heritage it bears on its back. And we took interest in this and began exploring Sephardic music, Turkish folk songs, Arab and North African music, among many others.
If you listen to an Albaluna song you may hear a dance rhythm from Serbia, or a Turkish makam, which roughly translates to music scales with particular expressions and rules, or you may hear an Iberian hurdy-gurdy, or bagpipes, which, on the contrary to what a lot of people believe, also have a strong presence in Iberian culture. And if you want to travel farther away, there is also Indian, Persian, Afghan music in it. The distances are virtually shortened and that’s one of the main purposes of our band: to bring different people, nations and cultures together. Without any kind of prejudice. Why be influenced by only a few genres if by every corner you can find a whole new musical world?
Pedro Fortunato – In which way are those traditional traits, let’s say, “diluted” with contemporary music?
Christian Marr’s – Diluted… I’d rather say mixed, blended. Because although there is a prog rock background and harmonic section, the front of the stage is dominated by instruments clearly pertaining to folk culture from all over the world. The saz baglama, the bagpipes, the jembe, the hurdy-gurdy … But I understand why you say that.
Some songs, for instance “Cascata Trófica”, from our last album, has a rock drive going on… It could be a prog metal song, although the main melodies are performed by the hurdy-gurdy, the vielle and the bagpipes… It’s curious, but that actually the kind of musical twist that we like to impose on our songs. It’s folk-oriented, but heavy. It’s heavy, but it isn’t metal, since you won’t find the conventional electric guitars trying to bring the house down, although we sometimes do anyways (laughs). Because it is all focused on the energy that we transmit, the idea we want to convey. For instance, Turkish music has a lot of metal-sounding rhythms and melodies, at least from our point of view. And that is the sweet spot where Albaluna stands. A heavy-not-heavy ethnic soundscape in which we are free to make whatsoever comes to mind. Did that even answer your question?
Pedro Fortunato – The most recent work, Amor, Ira & Desgosto (“Love, Wrath & Grief”) deals with feelings universal and transcendental to all cultures. Does that universality play an important role in your lyrics?
Christian Marr’s – Yes, of course. Musically we try to break barriers and unite cultures in our own creations, in an attempt to bring everyone together in this portrait of ethnicities and colours, of historical routes. And if there is one thing that we learned from traveling is that people are all alike, whichever tradition they were born in. Well, the language changes, faith may vary, complexion may be different, but in its essence, a person is a universal being, with very much the same kind of emotions and preoccupations, be it here or in India. It’s like if you strip someone of the social constructs they carry on their backs, you will be facing someone who laughs, cries, get angry, or sad.
People, universally speaking, want to love and be loved, to be happy and get home safely, only to find their friends and family in a comfortable and peaceful state of mind. We are a book of patterns. And that’s what our lyrics try to observe and absorb. Every single human being has felt love, wrath, grief, this last one representing any sort of deep suffering.
This album also deals with discrimination. “Gargull” and “Amor, Ira & Desgosto” refer prejudice and the feelings of someone who has been put apart. The gargoyle is just a metaphor for someone who is considered ugly and eerie, who is put “where the sun does not want to reach”. This has been repeated throughout.
“Chiaroscuro” is also a profound poem on the inner darkness and light that lies within every single person. The title of the song is a painting technique which uses both darkness and light to create contrasts and emphasize the duality of shadow and luminous areas. The lyrics are about life experiences. About how you must use what you learn to overcome all obstacles and what the past has offered you, which will never be the same. It’s about embracing your weaknesses and turning them into your character’s main traits, through internal strife.
The whole album revolves around this: strife and the will to overcome whatever blocks your way. But also, love and dreams appear. “O Sonho” was written with these in mind. It’s about purposes you may have in life, especially referring to building a family and expanding your circle of loved ones. These are the three fires that burn inside every single person: Love, Wrath & Grief.
Pedro Fortunato – With influences so distinct in origin and in style, is it still possible to find the “Portuguese soul” in Albaluna?
Christian Marr’s – Yes, of course! The songs are sung in Portuguese. Some poems are based on Portuguese ideas and costumes. One of the songs begins with the line “Sem ter o mesmo azul do mar…”, which translates to “A blue distinct from that of the sea…”. Well, the sea is an ever-present notion in our people’s common sense. The country’s History is deeply bound to its connection to seafaring, and this quote is a flashback on Albaluna’s previous album Nau dos Corvos, based exactly on those concepts. But there are many other traits in our lyrics, but maybe not as obvious or ”tourist-inclined” as you would imagine.
“Penedo da Saudade” has a traditional feel to it, and is filled with nostalgic and bohemian thoughts, which can also be found in Fado songs or in Portuguese poetry. And musically speaking we focus a lot on the roots of Portuguese culture, the fusion of the three cultures that found their place here and cemented the society we see today: Christian, Jewish and Muslim worlds.
The sanfona, the hurdy-gurdy, is a Medieval instrument found in galician imagery. And Galicia is a sort of brotherlike territory to Portugal, sharing linguistic, historical and musical characteristics. And for me “Chiaroscuro” and “Penedo da Saudade” have a very strong Portuguese color.
One of the times we performed in Germany we found a leaflet that described Albaluna with a question: “What music is there left to discover in Portugal besides fado?”. It might not be fado or cante, but it deserves its place as Portuguese music with strong intercultural influences and references, and I think we might be in the right way to be recognized as such.
From: https://worldmusiccentral.org/interview-with-groundbreaking-portuguese-band-albaluna/
