The fourth album of the Portuguese trio Uivo Zebra, Deus Montanha (Mountain God), was recorded during the trio’s artist residency at SMUP in Parede in January. It suggests a new phase in the sonic evolution of Uivo Zebra trio – bassist Hernâni Faustino, drummer-percussionist João Svayam, and guitarist Jorge Nuno, into more intricate, open-ended, patient, and layered textures through spatial awareness and sonic restraint.
The six pieces focus on immersive, dream-like, and surreal sound-oriented textures with unpredictable sensibilities of time and space and an intriguing, exotic-ritualistic vibe. The trio pushes the sonic palettes of the electric bass, drums, electric guitar, voices, and assorted percussive instruments into uncharted, highly nuanced and dramatic terrains. Svayam’s attached texts and photos intensify the mystery with such description of the opening piece «sonho, terra» (dream, land): «When you enter the core of dreams, it is the skin that seems to stretch, and that body becomes a desert. After all, the world of dreams is just an open field on the Earth, where figures walk around shaking rattles and singing like bells». Or, on the last title piece: «the Dream Earth is just an open field on the land, where earthquakes roam, where geysers spit, where fireballs look like angry and insane demons. As if daybreak were more difficult to endure than any nightmare, after all the struggle to get out of the Earth’s core and reach the surface, you shake your body, shake off the dust, open and close your eyes».
Hide and Seek is the second solo double bass album of the self-taught Faustino, following Twelve Bass Tunes (Phonogram Unit, 2021), highlighting his rich tonal depth with a wide range of extended techniques, such as percussive bowing, harmonics, and textural layering—to explore the full sonic potential of the bull fiddle. The album was recorded at Penh asco Arte Cooperativa in Lisbon in November 2023 and features a 24-minute piece, «The Seeker and the Hider». This metaphor reflects the art of free improvisation, where the roles of the seeker and the hider can mirror the dynamic between musicians as they navigate sound, space, and surprise, sometimes revealing, and sometimes concealing. Much of the play, the tension, and the excitement lie in the endless chase, the unexpected discovery, the near-miss, or the deliberate misdirection. This is an intense, exploratory, and deep-toned dive into the rich, dark, woody sonic palette of the double bass. It suggests a thoughtful, lyrical narrative that juggles masterfully, both arco and pizzicato, with tension and release, listening and reacting, building and withholding.
Eyal Hareuveni
Hernâni Faustino (electric bass, percussion, vocals, double bass), João Svayam (drums, Tibetan bowls, feng gong, chimes, vocals), Jorge Nuno (electric guitar, vocals)
