Nico & Fernando Ramalho - Fantasia para Pipilado e Cordas

Nico & Fernando Ramalho - Fantasia para Pipilado e Cordas pt. II

Che: ¿dónde te puedo escribir?  Me dirás que a cualquier parte, a un minero boliviano, a una madre peruana, al guerrillero que está o no está pero estará. Todo esto lo sé, Che, tú mismo me lo enseñaste, y además, esta carta no sería para ti. Cómo decirte que nunca había llorado tanto desde la noche que mataron a Frank, y eso que esta vez no lo creía. Todos estaban seguros, y yo decía: no es posible, una bala no puede terminar el infinito, Fidel y tú tienen que vivir, si ustedes no viven, cómo vivir.  Hace catorce años veo morir a seres tan inmensamente queridos, que hoy me siento cansada de vivir, creo que he vivido demasiado, el sol no lo veo tan bello, la palma no siento placer en verla; a veces, como ahora, a pesar de gustarme tanto la vida, que por esas dos cosas vale la pena abrir los ojos cada mañana, siento deseos de tenerlos cerrados como ellos, como tú.

Cómo puede ser cierto, este continente no merece eso; con tus ojos abiertos, América Latina tenía su camino pronto. Che, lo único que pudo consolarme es haber ido, pero no fui. Junto a Fidel estoy, he hecho siempre lo que él desee que haga. ¿Te acuerdas?  Me lo prometiste en la Sierra, me dijiste: no extrañarás el café, tendremos mate.  No tenías fronteras, pero me prometiste que me llamarías cuando fuera en tu Argentina, y como lo esperaba, sabía bien que lo cumplirías. Ya no puede ser, no pudiste, no pude.  Fidel lo dijo, tiene que ser verdad, que tristeza. No podía decir “Che”, tomaba fuerzas y decía “Ernesto Guevara”, así se lo comunicaba al pueblo, a tu pueblo. Que tristeza tan profunda, lloraba por el pueblo, por Fidel, por ti, porque no puedo.  Después, en la velada, este gran pueblo no sabía que grados te pondría Fidel.  Te los puso: artista.  Yo pensaba que todos los grados eran pocos, chicos, y Fidel, como siempre, encontró los verdaderos; todo lo que creaste fue perfecto, pero hiciste una creación única, te hiciste a ti mismo, demostraste cómo es posible ese hombre nuevo, todos veríamos así al hombre nuevo es realidad, porque existe, eres tú. Qué más puedo decirte, Che.  Si supiera, como tú, decir las cosas.  De todas maneras, una vez me escribiste: “Veo que te has convertido en una literata con dominio de la síntesis, pero te confieso que como más me gustas es en un día de año nuevo, con todos los fusibles disparados y tirando cañonazos a la redonda. Esa imagen y la de la Sierra (hasta nuestras peleas de aquellos días me son gratas al recuerdo) son las que llevaré de ti para uso propio”.  Por eso no podré escribir nunca nada de ti y tendrás siempre ese recuerdo.

Hasta la victoria siempre, Che querido,

Haydée

Fernando Ramalho - The Ghosts of Haydée Santamaría

Peça para Sete Poemas, solo de dança de Isadora Dantas, apresentado em estreia no Centro Cultural da Malaposta, a 9 e 10 de Abril de 2022.

Criação e Dança ISADORA DANTAS
Acompanhamento em Estudos do Corpo e do Movimento SOFIA NEUPARTH
Criação Musical BRUNO DE AZEVEDO, FERNANDO RAMALHO, MARCOS AGANJU E THIAGO RIGHI
Produção CRISTINA VILHENA E C.E.M – CENTRO EM MOVIMENTO
Figurino ISADORA DANTAS
Fotografia CLARA BEVILAQUA
Design de Divulgação GUILHERME ALLAIN
Agradecimentos MARTA FANDIÑO, GONÇALO PIRES, MARGARIDA AGOSTINHO, LEILA ORTIZ, OLGA MIRANDA, JULIA DICKOW, PARKER HERRING, NEWTON DANTAS, MARIANA LEMOS, PETER MICHAEL DIETZ, DALLY SCHWARZ, FILIPA MORAES, RUI ANTUNES, CLARA ANTUNES, BATUKEDOPÉ, VALÉRIA SANCHES…

Fernando Ramalho - A Velha/Mole in the Ground (p/ solo de dança de Isadora Dantas)

Improv session by Diogo Duarte and Berlau.

Picture: Anselm Kiefer

Date: November 16, 2015.

DD & Berlau - II

DD & Berlau - I

Berlau's contribution to the compilation 'The Open Window', by Linear Obsessional Recordings, that brought together 85 recordings from across the world, by the end of 2015. The challenge was to open the window and record two minutes of sound, whether overdubbing or not other sound elements. Available at https://linearobsessional.bandcamp.com/album/open-the-window.

Release date: December 24, 2015

Berlau - Dull Morning

February 5, 2016 marked 100 years since the founding of the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, an event associated with the beginning of Dadaism. To mark the date, the Cities and Memories (http://citiesandmemory.com) launched the ‘Dada Sounds’ project – a collection of field recordings from all over the world, to which one or more dada techniques should be applied, aiming to build a sound map that would bring “a Dadaist approach to the concepts of sound, place and memory”. The project includes this Berlau contribution, the track “Topodadanymy”, a manipulation of a field recording captured at Rua da Cruz dos Poiais, in Lisboa, in June 2015 (at the Pedras '15 Festival, organized by c.e.m), where we can hear a detailed description of the toponymy of that section of the city. Both the original field recordings and the tracks to which the dada techniques were applied can be listened browsing the sound map or in the playlist, at http://citiesandmemory.com/dadasounds.

Release date: February 5, 2016.

The title, «Topodadanymy», refers not only to the topic of the conversation we can listen on the field recording, but also to the effort of producing an alternative and critical cartography, a common practice among many groups that assume, in a way, the tradition of the Dadaists, like the Situationist International and their studies on psychogeography. The absurdity induced by the manipulation of the field recording may transport us to a scenario where our movements through the city escape the rationalized logic of the contemporary productive city.

Dada techniques applied – sound poem/cut-up, chance, collage.

The reimagined piece features:
- The original field recording;
- Slices of the original field recording (sound poem/ cut-up) placed randomly through the track (chance); 
- Two oscillators (collage). Oscillator 1 is a straight loop, representing the functional and rationalized dimension of the contemporary city, while oscillator 2 is an improvised filter, representing the unpredictability of the city’s everyday life.

Dada Sounds

Berlau - Topodadanymy

Berlau reimagining Cuba from a field recording captured by Jack Hyde in Ciénaga de Zapata.
That verse from Carlos Puebla’s chorus is perhaps the one that illustrates more clearly the way I learned to imagine Cuba and its revolutionary experience: la entrañable transparencia. A rebel island, a piece of utopia achievable from everywhere. The field recording that formed the basis for this exercise was captured in Ciénaga de Zapata, a region highly populated by flamingos and crocodiles, a suggestive intersection of beauty and resistance. Available at http://citiesandmemory.com/2016/04/reimagining-cuba. 

Release date: March 13, 2016.

Berlau - La Entrañable Transparencia

Berlau's contribution to ‘Prison Songs’, a project by Cities and Memory. The challenge was to reimagine some work songs recorded by Alan Lomax in the Mississippi State Penitentiary, also known as Parchman Farm), in the late 1940’s. Berlau worked on the song ‘Old Dollar Mamie’.
There’s a sense of ambiguity in these chain gang songs. On the one hand, the brutal oppression; on the other hand the joy of singing together. I tried to capture that duality with two droning guitars that, at some point, melt with the original recording. The title –‘You better stay off ol' Parchman Farm’ – is a line by Bukka White, from his song ‘Parchman Farm’, the Mississippi State Penitentiary where White was a prisoner and Alan Lomax recorded several prison songs.
Available at http://citiesandmemory.com/2016/04/prison-songs-launching-today.

Release date: April 25, 2016.

Berlau - You Better Stay Off Ol' Parchman Farm

Original soundtrack for the movie ‘Amanhecer’, by Pedro Sousa and Rui A. Pereira.

Release date: September 2016.

Berlau - Amanhecer II

Berlau - Amanhecer I

Electric guitar version of Alvin Lucier’s ‘I Am Sitting in a Room’, a 1969 piece for voice and electromagnetic tape. Lucier reads a text into a microphone, beginning with the lines “I am sitting in a room, different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice.” As described in the text, his voice is recorded and then played back into the room. This process is repeated, and with each iteration Lucier’s recorded speech grows muddled, sounding distant, and specific sonic frequencies start to dominate the recorded sound. These tones that begin to overwhelm the text and abstract the sonic landscape are the room’s resonant frequencies and are entirely specific to the architectural particularity of a given space. As these frequencies grow, reinforced with each playback, the result is an erasure of Lucier’s voice and the dominance of the environmental sound.

***

Versão para guitarra eléctrica de ‘I Am Sitting in a Room’, uma peça de Alvin Lucier, de 1969, para voz e fita electromagnética. Lucier lê um texto ao microfone, que começa do seguinte modo: «Estou sentado numa sala, diferente daquela em que vocês estão neste momento. Estou a gravar o som da minha voz.» Como se descreve no texto, a voz de Lucier é gravada e depois reproduzida na sala. Esse processo é repetido e, a cada iteração, o discurso gravado de Lucier torna-se crescentemente confuso, soa distante, e certas frequências sonoras começam a sobrepor-se ao som gravado inicialmente. Esses tons, que vão tornando mais abstracta a paisagem sonora, são as frequências ressonantes da sala e resultam inteiramente das particularidades arquitetónicas de um dado espaço. À medida que essas frequências aumentam de intensidade, verifica-se a erosão da voz de Lucier e o crescente domínio do som ambiental.

Fernando Ramalho - I Am Playing Guitar In A Room

Bagatela that dialogues with the drawing ‘Morrer ao Sol’, by Rita Dias (www.facebook.com/ritadias76). The drawing was inspired by the movie ‘Roma’, by Alfonso Cuarón.

Recorded in one take, with an iPhone, no editing or overdubbing.

Berlau - Morrer ao Sol (Bagatela for a Drawing by Rita Dias)

Conjunto de quatro peças sonoras resultantes do projecto Inter-Rumores.

Da responsabilidade da investigadora Ana Moya, do músico Fernando Ramalho e do ilustrador Lord Mantraste, INTER-RUMORES é uma instalação sonora que corresponde à criação e produção de quatro composições sonoras concebidas a partir de uma recolha sonora levada a cabo com cerca de quarenta alunos, de nacionalidades diversas (Nepal, China, Índia, Bangladesh, entre outras), moradores na zona da Mouraria, Anjos e Graça e frequentadores da aula de Português Língua Não Materna (Aula de Integração Cultural) da Escola Secundária Gil Vicente. Entre maio de 2018 e Janeiro de 2019 teve lugar um conjunto de aulas sobre consciência sonora ambiental e cultural com os alunos participantes, com a realização de atividades sonoras em torno da consciência, do reconhecimento, da interpretação e criação de novas ligações afetivas e identitárias no bairro da Mouraria, Graça e Anjos através do som.

04 - Inter - Rumores - Quotidiano

Improvisação sobre recolhas sonoras feitas na Manifestação Popular do 25 de Abril em Lisboa, 2019.

Berlau - Sete Rios de Multidão

Berlau - Ruína

Contrassexual Toccata (for two dildos and electric guitar), to be released in September 2019.

Contrassexual Toccata is a piece for two dildos and electric guitar, divided in three parts, and aims to deconstruct the phallocentric connotation of the electric guitar, while questioning sex and gender binarism, following the notion of contrassexuality proposed by Paul B. Preciado.

In the universe of pop music the electric guitar has long been seen as an object connected to the promotion of masculinity. The iconic use of the instrument by Jimi Hendrix, Keith Richards or Pete Townshend, among many others, immediately comes to mind. The shape of the instrument and the way it is characteristically placed next to the musician’s body explain, in a way, that connection. On the other hand, certain developments of its sonic range and the central place it historically occupied in an aesthetic deeply influenced by sexism, heteronormativity and misogyny also contributed to that connotation.

As Preciado puts it, contrassexuality is “the end of Nature as an order which legitimates the subjection of some bodies by others”. In that sense, changing the relation of the musician’s body with the electric guitar, as well as using the dildos to play it, with all the sonic unpredictability it implies, take the instrument to a field of autonomy that symbolically rejects that subjection and the biopolitical apparatus of sex and gender.

Berlau - Contrassexual Toccata (for two dildos and electric guitar) pt. I

A tribute to the late great José Mário Branco.

Fernando Ramalho - Eu Vi Este Povo A Lutar (Confederação)

Improvisação a partir de sons recolhidos em manifestação anti-racista na Av. Liberdade, em Lisboa, a 1 de Fevereiro de 2020.

Fernando Ramalho - Não Passarão

Leitura: Sofia Neuparth
Música; Fernando Ramalho
Texto: Maria Gabriela Llansol, 'Cantileno', 2000.

Fernando Ramalho

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