Label: Harmonic Ooze

10年以上に渡りポルトガルの地下シーンにて実験ギタリストとして活動を続けているJoao Alegria。米実験/即興レーベルHarmonic Oozeが2024年7月に出版したソロアルバム[Ouro]。暗く沈み込むイメージのサウンドスケープ的演奏を得意とする人物であり、本作ではそのスタイルと初期のメロディックな短い作曲法を融合、フィールドレコーディングを挟みつつ15の短い楽曲を作り上げた小曲集。静寂と緊張を行き来しながら進むダークアンビエントにも通じる一枚。









Custom CD / Hand Made / w/ Jewel Case / Limited Edition

"João Alegria is an essential figure in the Portuguese underground music scene. With a prolific career spanning over a decade, the guitarist – as he prefers to be called – embodies artistic commitment, resilience, and a deep devotion to crafting dark, experimental soundscapes. The numerous albums the Lisbon-based musician has released testify to a sonic vision akin to its object of study: unhurried and unperturbable, yet continuous and tempestuous.

Alegria’s music originates from a place we all inhabit but often seek to escape. It masterfully captures the essence of night, isolation, and depression. But while gloomy and mysterious at first glance, beneath a mantle of oozing drones and quasi-static industrial soundscapes lies a force that brings light to the surface. Think of staring at a black surface for too long; eventually, you begin to discern hues you hadn't noticed before. It is the same with Alegria’s music: the more you dwell on it, the greater the range of emotions it unveils – happiness and sadness, disgust and fear, surprise and anger – it is all there. This means Alegria’s music may not be for every moment, but it is undoubtedly for everyone – for those willing to lend their sensitivity to an immersive experience in which profound depth and subtle luminosity coexist.

Ouro bridges the gracefully melodic, short-composition style of Alegria's earliest work with the longer forms of his mid and late phases. Comprising 15 short compositions, each revolving around a particular motif that continually evolves, the album can be heard as a set of related drone-like and highly textural subdued atmospheres, characteristic of the guitarist's later work. These compositions transport the listener to the eye of a storm, where one experiences the surrounding chaos and violence from inside a bubble that juxtaposes silence with tension-filled noise.

To create Ouro, Alegria employed the techniques we have come to expect from him: a multitude of effects that transform strings into cosmologically resonant entities, objects – like the bow – with which he plays the guitar, and the cut-and-sew method of editing and digital experimentation. Additionally, field recordings, mostly absent in his most emblematic releases such as Vertical, are also featured. As a piece of contemporary experimental music, Ouro marks another milestone in Alegria’s relentless, nomadic journey through the realms of sound exploration. And it is pure gold – a delight to listen to – as the Portuguese translation of the title promptly reveals."

-- João Morado
Edinburgh, July 2024