Impeachment is the sophomore album of the Portuguese, Lisbon-based trio Peachfuzz of trumpeter and electronics player João Almeida (co-founder of Facada Records and member of Rodrigo Amado’s Refraction Quartet), drummer João Lopes Pereira, and guitarist and electronics player Norberto Lobo, following Peachinguinha (Silent Water, 2022). The album was recorded at Boavista Studios in Santa Cruz in February 2024. The album suggests a major shift in the sound of Peachfuzz from the noisy, erratic dynamics of Peachinguinha into spontaneously improvised, experimental sonic searches that flirt with drones, electronics, abstract noises, and spacious, meditative sounds, with a focus on timbre. Peachfuzz allows the four pieces – «Peachleira», «Paralelipeach», «Brad Peach», and «A Peach Ó Comboio» – to flow and evolve organically, without predefined rules, rely on the trio’s tight and ever-inventive dynamics, and find their own inner logic. The last piece, the 21-minute «A Peach Ó Comboio», begins by diving slowly into an exotic, psychedelic sea of abstract, meditative yet resonant, noisy sounds, patiently builds its mysterious-cinematic tension, but does not seek a familiar, cathartic conclusion
Orogénese (the geological process of mountain formation) brings together the Portuguese. Lisbon-based experimental cellist-singer-songwriter Joana Guerra, who also plays on synths and wooden flutes, with trumpeter and electronics player Yaw Tembe (the second founder of Facada Records), who met at a residency in Damas, Lisbon, for their debut duo album. The album was recorded at Moby Dick Recording Studio in Málaga in February 2024. The eight unhurried, lyrical pieces suggest intimate, sensual conversations that evoke gentle sonic tectonic movements that contrast the impatience of our times. These haunting pieces keep a strong element of mystery, often borrowing exotic ideas from far cultures and traditions, and never gravitate into conventional narratives. Guerra and Tembe sound as if dancing with their magical sounds around each other in a patient, seductive dance.
Lucifecit is a new Portuguese quartet featuring bassist-composer Lobo, two trumpeters – Yaw Tembe, who also plays on EWI and percussion, and Almeida, who also plays on electronics, and drummer-percussionist Pereira. The trio is titled after a sacred creek that may stem from a Mozarabic variation of Lucifer («bearer of light»), possibly alluding to Iron Age rituals of veneration for a distant star. Devoção (Devotion) is the debut album of the quartet, and it was recorded at Boavista Studios in March 2024. Lucifecit describes the album as a collection of powerful anthems, mantras, and hypnotic grooves, stretched in homage to a forgotten deity. The five pieces highlight the strong rhythmic drive, intensified with seductive, repetitive Gnawa-like bass and drums motifs, and the spacious, melodic spiritual jazz front line of trumpeters Tembe and Almedida. The title piece pushes Lucifecit’s dynamics into freer terrains while the last piece, «Timpani» (by Lobo and Ananta Roosens), takes this quartet even further, into mysterious, exotic territories.
Eyal Hareuveni
João Almeida (trumpet, electronics), João Lopes Pereira (drums, percussion), Norberto Lobo (guitar, electronics, electric bass), Yaw Tembe (trumpet, voice, electronics, flute, EWI, percussion), Joana Guerra (cello, voice, effects, synthesizers, wooden flute, harmonic)
