Albaluna is one of those rare musical projects impossible to categorize under a genre. A band of the world more than a world music band, in Albaluna we find a mixture of influences from various Mediterranean cultures in a contemporary fusion already denoting traditional music in its core.
This exquisite sound palette has been pleasing many audiences around the globe. The band has released three albums; the most recent work is Amor, Ira & Desgosto (“Love, Wrath & Grief”), released in 2019, presented already at diverse stages all over Portugal, as well with dates in Macao (China), Spain, India, France, Germany, Montenegro and Morocco. Here, the musical colors of many different cultures, times and nations blend with progressive rock to take the shape of an intriguing and unique band.
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. From: https://worldmusiccentral.org/2020/03/06/interview-with-groundbreaking-portuguese-band-albaluna/
