MOORIS is the Portuguese experimental duo of trumpeter João Almeida and percussionist-drummer Pedro Melo Alves and I is the debut album of the duo, recorded at Ermo do Caos in Porto in May 2021. Almeida and Alves wanted to leave behind the familiar ground and use their instruments to create and investigate sounds that appear mysteriously ceremonial.

The album presents both musicians freely investigating their instruments’ most abstract and extreme sonic palettes but also finding and creating minimalist and fascinating sounds with assorted objects and amplification.

I is released as a limited edition vinyl with a download option. The A side offers five pieces, all titled with the positive sign of  «+» – which marks the tone, dark, sparse and haunting, or the use of the freedom proposed by this sonic experiment. In each piece, objects are added to create movement, confusion and dancing elements, inspired by dark metal to industrial. The sparse and subtle pieces suggest distant memories and visions, and allow Almeida and Alves to flow gently with the sounds. The B side offers four pieces, all titled with the negative sign of «-», and all follow the conceptual logic of the first side. These pieces adapt briefly jazz vocabulary, with Almeida’s trumpet corresponding with the concepts of Jon Hassell’s Fourth World, but still sounding as if transmitting messages from a friendly civilization.

LUMP is the Lisbon-based, experimental duo of vocalist Mariana Dionísio and trumpeter Almeida. The duo began working in 2019 and Strain Field is its debut album, recorded at Galeria Zé dos Bois in Lisbon in 2020, based on the idea of Landscaping/Field Recording. LUMP describes its aesthetics as «a Microcosmos of Micro ideas for angry Micro entities». The six short pieces match Almeida’s extended breathing with Dionísio’s extended vocal techniques and weave eccentric but imaginative, fragile textures.

Eyal Hareuveni

Pedro Melo Alves (drums, objects), Mariana Dionísio (voice), João Almeida (trumpet, objects)