Space Echo - The mystery behind the Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde finally revealed!

In the spring of 1968 a cargo ship was getting ready to leave the port of Baltimore with an important shipment of musical instruments. Its final destination was Rio De Janeiro, where the EMSE Exhibition (Exposição Mundial Do Son Eletrônico) was going to be held. 

It was the first expo of its kind to take place in the southern hemisphere and many of the leading companies in the field of electronic music were involved. Rhodes, Moog, Farfisa, Hammond and Korg, just to name a few, were all eager to present their newest synthesisers and other gadgets to a growing and promising South American market, spearheaded by Brazil and Colombia.

The ship with the goods set sail on the 20th of March on a very calm morning and disappeared from the radar on the very same day.

One can only imagine the surprise of the villagers of Cachaço, on the Sao Nicolau island of Cabo Verde, when a few months later they woke up and found a ship stranded in their fields, in the middle of nowhere, 8 km from the sea. 
After consulting with the village elders, the locals had decided to open the containers to see what was inside but the news had travelled fast and before they knew it, colonial police had already arrived and secured the area. 

Portuguese scientists and physicians were ordered to the scene; and after weeks of thorough studies and research, it was concluded that the ship had fallen from the sky. One of the less plausible theories was that it might have fallen from a Russian military air carrier. The locals joked that the government had wasted their tax money again on a useless exercise, as a simple look at the crater generated by the impact could explain the phenomena. “No need for Portuguese rocket science to explain this!” they laughed. 

What the villagers didn’t know, was that traces of cosmic particles were discovered on the boat. The bow of the ship showed traces of extreme heat, very similar to traces found on meteors, suggesting that the ship had penetrated the hemisphere at high speed. That theory also didn't make sense as such an impact would have reduced the ship to dust. Mystery penetrated the event.  

Finally, a team of welders arrived to open the containers and the whole village waited impatiently. The atmosphere, which had been filled with joy and excitement, quickly gave way to astonishment. Hundreds of boxes conjured, all containing keyboards and other instruments which they had never seen before: and all useless in an area devoid of electricity. Disappointment was palpable. The goods were temporarily stored in the local church and the women of the village had insisted a solution be found before Sunday mass. 

It is said that charismatic anti-colonial leader Amílcar Cabral had ordered for the instruments to be distributed equally in places that had access to electricity, which placed them mainly in schools.
This distribution was best thing that could have happened - keyboards found fertile grounds in the hands of curious children, born with an innate sense of rhythm and these children picked up instruments that were easy to use and would become instrumental for modernising local rhythms such as Mornas, Coladeras and the highly danceable music style called Funaná, banned by the Portuguese colonial rulers until 1975 probably due to the fact that it was too sexy!

Observation was made that the children who came into contact with the instruments found on the ship had prodigious capabilities to understand music and learn instruments. One of them was the musical genius Paulino Vieira who by the end of the 70s would become the country´s most important music arranger. 

8 out of the 15 songs presented in this compilation had been recorded with the backing of the band Voz de Cabo Verde lead by Paulino Vieira, the mastermind behind the creation and the promulgation of what is known today as “The Cosmic Sound of Cabo Verde”. 




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Dia Ja Manche  - Dionisio Maio (Leave a comment for Dionisio, tell him how much you love his song !)

Keyboardist/Guitarist, Composer (for soundtracks and different mediums), Arranger, Aspiring Sound Designer, Writer and Coffee Addict.

Dia Ja Manche - Dionisio Maio (Leave a comment for Dionisio, tell him how much you love his song !)

Analog Africa