The São Vicente-based musician showed A Semana Online the nine tracks that will be included on the album. The songs were all recorded between last Wednesday and Sunday.
The tracks, all of them instrumental and, contrary to what many would expect, not necessarily guitar-dominated, reveal a maturity that is somewhat rare in Cape Verdean music. Without pending clearly toward “traditional” Cape Verdean genres or jazz or rock styles, the songs are a harmonious fusion of all of these influences. There are tracks whose sounds recall water cascading down a waterfall, others that develop to the rhythm of a train running along its tracks, and “one that is reminiscent of an airplane ride, from takeoff to landing.” Silence is also a major presence in the work, says the musician, who considers most of the songs “melancholic.”
“It’s as if it were an orchestra I’m the conductor of,” explains Hernâni, who is accompanied by Miroca Paris on percussion, José Paris on bass and Lúcio Vieira on piano on the recordings. Hernâni composed all of the songs and recorded his guitar part first, and only then asked each of the musicians to contribute with their respective instruments to lend body to the compositions. The result, explains the musician, is thus the fruit of improvisation. “If I were the one playing all of the components of the songs, I wouldn’t have any pleasure listening to them, and today I’ve been listening countless times to how each of the musicians interpreted his part. And that’s what I like in this record,” he said.
The songs, recorded in Zunga Pinheiro’s Kapital Studios in Praia, will now be edited and mastered, with no date set as of yet for the album’s release. It is relatively certain, however, that the CD will not hit the market before October.
Rita Vaz da Silva
Cidade da Praia
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