Adventuring on a minimalist piano infused with ever drifting electronic experimentalism, portuguese posthuman pianist Diogo Carriço proudly shares ‘Silhouette Nekropolis’, his debut album, on November 24th. Overcoming apathy towards recurring climate crisis news, the musical narrative flows in between restless organic textures to create a sense of cherish and wonder.

Bred by a planet overflowing with the most surreal symptoms of its fever, ‘Silhouette Nekropolis’ brings to surface the hardships of the first ecosystem at risk of being entirely lost to the climate crisis - coral reefs.

For Diogo, the balance between people, technology and nature is urgent. In 2017, he moved to The Netherlands to pursue his vision of self expression through breaking boundaries between acoustic and electronic elements, humanity and technology. Since then, he has seen prolific years of daring experimentation coupled with personal and musical growth. Diogo has been awarded the prize ‘Young Creators’ by the National Centre of Culture of his homeland, Portugal, and toured The Netherlands as selected emerging talent of Popronde. His explorations with cutting edge technology led him to work with rare computer controlled instruments, namely the Disklavier piano and the Hyperorgan in Orgelpark (Amsterdam), and prototype, with the support of the University of Arts of Amsterdam, ‘Qi’ - an unique software for shaping musical performances with the expressiveness of hand gestures.

The album is a submersion in a coral’s dreamy yet confronting lifetime journey. The strain of rising sea temperatures causes corals to expel the colorful algae that live in their bodies - ‘Zooxanthellae’ - thus turning into pure white sculptures and losing their food source until they eventually fade. The title comes from the vast fields of lifeless silhouettes that result from a massive bleaching event. Extracting from the corals themselves and their watery surroundings the raw artistic materials that drive this work, Diogo propels the listener to a continuous drift through colors and textures that evoke a new empathy, oneness and attunement to nature. The intimacy of the felted piano in ‘Deep Blue’ and ‘Zooxanthellae’, captured by Gijs van Klooster, adds a contemplative dimension to the immersive experience, destined to dissolve into fuzzy ‘Putrid Traces’ and the remaining rocky note clusters and longing strummed strings of the last track, ‘Silhouette Nekropolis’. ‘Polyps’ - the tiny reef’s mouths proliferating in colonies - presents, on the other hand, a thick pointillism of dominant sonic entities claiming their space. Progressively multiplying, they propel the listener to a rapturous drift of minimal trance. Yet, excruciating melodies of fight for survival meet our ears from far away. Whoops, purs, snaps and grunts of fish and shrimp, recorded in reefs across the globe, illustrate in ‘Gardens of Coral’ the aliveness and fantastic array of inhabitants these metropolises host when in a healthy state.

Issued independently as a limited edition white vinyl LP and NFC stickers, Silhouette Nekropolis is fluidity, the permeation of musical elements within the parts in favor of the whole, a mixed infusion of colors and a (bio)diversity celebration in a time that can no longer live without climate justice.

Music composed, performed and produced by Diogo Carriço
Recorded by Gijs van Klooster at Soundbird Studio, Utrecht
Mixed by Diogo Carriço
Mastered by Gijs van Klooster
Album artwork by Diogo Duque Paula
Graphic design by Diogo Duque Paula
Original coral reef samples by Julius Piercy, Steve Simpson and Tim Lamont
With the Support from the Portuguese National Centre of Culture, Bol Pianos and Steunfonds Talentvolle Makers.

Silhouette Nekropolis

Putrid Traces

Bleach

Zooxanthellae

Polyps

Gardens Of Coral

Deep Blue

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind

contact@diogocarrico.co

Music for the intersection, for the hybrid and the cyborg, for the crossroads and dialogues, for the real, the virtual and the imaginary.

Diogo Carriço is a musician and audiovisual artist engaged with the deconstruction and transmutation of pianism and the piano, in a relation of forces with electronics that infuse fluidity and restlessness in oneness, exploring the climate crisis in a posthuman world. A boundary breaking approach and fluidity between acoustic, electronic and visual elements represents his compositions and performances. Adventuring on a minimalist piano, he infuses drifting harmonies and undulating melodies with electronic experimentalism. Diogo conceives sonic life forms that permeate asymmetries of media, bringing audience into immersion in dreamy soundscapes and live visuals that have as much from the natural world as abstract paintings.

Next to his performances, Diogo is interested in pushing forward the way new technologies can be used for musical purposes. Such is done via the use of body motion sensors, like the Leap Motion hands sensor, to strictly connect the musician's gesture to electronic sound manipulation. As result of this work, an invitation to be artist in residency in the University of Arts of Amsterdam followed in 2019, where later he occupied the position of researcher. Supported by the newly formed Culture Club of the same instituition, he prototyped "Qi", a unique software for shaping musical performances and new media art with the intuition of hand gestures.

Carriço has performed in numerous locations and events, pointing up MaderiaDig festival, Haarlem Philharmonie, Popronde, Splendor, EYE filmmuseum, Uitmarkt festival, and Hard Club Porto, as well as appeared in media as De Groene Amsterdammer, RTP Madeira, Glam Magazine and A Cabine.

He was awarded by the Portuguese National Centre of Culture the "Young Creators" prize  for “Adventurous music with piano and electronics” - an immersive performance, crossing piano, electronics and visuals in real time.

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Diogo holds a master degree in Live Electronics by the Conservatorium of Amsterdam and a bachelor degree in Classical Piano Performance by the School of Applied Arts of Castelo Branco.