This song is an exercise in vulnerability. Everything is stripped back and exposed, and the lyrics are four sentences:
I feel you’re near.
I feel you’re here.
I know you care.
I know you’re there.

Voice and Piano: Gareth Williams, Trumpet in Bb: Bede Williams, Violin 1: Stewart Webster, Violin 2: Gillian Risi, Viola: Emma Connell-Smith, Cello: John Davidson.

Tenderhooks

I’m a composer and singer-songwriter living in Edinburgh. I make work that ranges from opera, music theatre and song, to chamber and orchestral music.  I lecture at Edinburgh College of Art, specialising in composition and song writing, whilst making bespoke work for my own voice, and for the voices of others- who range from international opera singers to people struggling with Long Covid. More here - https://www.scottishopera.org.uk/join-in/breath-cycle/the-covid-composers-songbook/

My stage works are often site-responsive, happening in lighthouses, distilleries, nuclear bunkers, and libraries. I create award winning commissions for companies such as Scottish Opera, Tapestry Opera, National Theatre of Scotland, Ulster Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Chamber Music Scotland. 

My new album, Songs from the Last Page, written for myself on vocals and piano, with violin and cello, will be released on 11th August 2023.

Brazilian composer and poet, Armando Lôbo develops varied musical genres and styles, making use of experimental hues in an intense symbiosis with literature, philosophy and religion.

Lôbo has released 4 albums that received top ratings from the specialized media in Brazil.

In 2010, he receives the highest award for Brazilian music, Prêmio da Música Brasileira, for the work with the Frevo Diabo Orchestra.

In 2012, he wins a contest and is awarded with a grant by the Rio de Janeiro State  with the project entitled Musicians’ Hell, which proposes a musical reading of a painting by Hieronymus Bosch. He is also one of the winners of the 2012 edition of the Prêmio Funarte de Composição Clássica (Composition Award of the Brazilian Foundation for the Arts) with his piece Pernambukalos.

In May 2013, his piece Calunga! is premiered by the Percussion Quintet of the Symphonic Orchestra of Rome, Italy, as part of a concert paying tribute to the Ballet Mécanique, by Fernand Léger. He also takes part in the creation of two contemporary music ensembles: the Pan Ensemble, linked to the Brazilian Conservatory of Music, and the Diaspora Mousikè Project, whose debut took place in the famous venue Gasteig, in Munich. In October, his piece Pernambukalos makes its premiere during the XX Biennial of Brazilian Contemporary Music, being acclaimed as the best piece of the evening by audience’s vote.

In 2014, he publishes S.O.S. REVERSOS, a poetry book with palindromic verses. His music is performed by the Diaspora Mousikè in São Paulo and Munich, as well as during the Charlotte New Music Festival (USA) by the Freya String Quartet and the Bechtler Ensemble. He is also one of the composers of the project  Il Viaggio, conceived by the Laboratorio Creativo Permanente, a  music group based in Rome, Italy. This project has been performed in several events in Italy, and is associated to the historical Nuova Consonanza.

Lôbo holds a Master’s in Composition from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. From 2008 to 2014, he lectured Composition and Counterpoint at the Brazilian Conservatory of Music. He is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Edinburgh/UK. 

PRESS

ABOUT THE THIRD ALBUM, Modern Tecniques of Ecstasy (2011) 
Estado de São Paulo – “total ecstasy, from the first to the last track” … “the album pulsates with the ecstasy of beauty, of the enjoyment of every faith, regardless of what will come”
Jornal do Commercio(PE) – “In the age of faceless bands, virtually reproduced singers, and conservative pop songs with redundant lyrics, comes an album that unites music and literature, Frevo rhythm and Wagner, that unveils the link present in Mahler between the Italian Venice and Recife, the Brazilian Venice, in which are cited Blake, St. Theresa of Ávila and Count Belamorte, a bizarre poet from the state of Minas Gerais… Is there such an album? Yes. It is called Modern Tecniques of Ecstasy, by Armando Lôbo”
REVISTA CONTINENTE(PE) – “Somber and radiant”, “the composer exhibits a sample of his cultural backbone weaving references to several names from literature and music"

ON HIS SECOND ALBUM, “Vulgar & Sublime" (2008)
Folha de São Paulo – “(…) bringing about what’s rarer and dearer in 2008: personal diction.” – rating:“GREAT”
Jornal do Commercio(PE) – “reaffirms the artist’s talent in all his versatility”; “aimed at a fine selection of listeners”
JB – “Never mind the vulgar; Sublime is the right title”; “gives rise to the best thing since the Mangue Beat generation.”
Gazeta do Povo(PR) -“Armando Lôbo (...) expands musical possibilities and creates delightful strangeness”

ON HIS DEBUT CD, “Alegria dos Homens" (2003):
O Globo -*****
Estado de Minas – “... more ideas and provocations than most celebrated “new geniuses” in their entire careers.”
JB – “a fruit from the crop of new authors and performers that are revolving the foundations of Brazilian Music."



Tenderhooks

Gareth Patrick Williams