Rodrigo Leão’s new album of originals is entitled “A Estranha Beleza da Vida”. And it’s a surprising record in many ways.
Surprising because a new work was not expected to exist, so shortly after the release of “O Método” in early 2020. Surprising because this new record was made without any rush or pressure, at the whim and inspiration of Rodrigo, who it refines here with disarming simplicity its unmistakable melodic sensibility.
Surprising because a new work was not expected to exist, so shortly after the release of “O Método” in early 2020. Surprising because this new record was made without any rush or pressure, at the whim and inspiration of Rodrigo, who it refines here with disarming simplicity its unmistakable melodic sensibility.
As the music says:
“Everything that has happened during this last year has made me think even more about the tenuous space between life and death. And at the same time, I also felt more like working. And more freedom!”
With the covid-19 pandemic leading to the cancellation of the tour of “O Método”, which had been published in February, Rodrigo withdrew to Alentejo with his family and there he would end up composing an EP, “Avis 2020”, recorded entirely solo, inspired by the surrounding nature, and released only in digital format.
“A Estranha Beleza da Vida” started to gain shape at the end of the year:
“I started thinking about this work in October 2020, the month I returned to Lisbon after months of confinement in the middle of the countryside. I felt a difference right away in the first songs, something more positive, happier, different from the environments on the previous album. Some referred me to a time somewhat distant from the one we live in now. Maybe it wasn’t by chance and even the result of an unconscious attempt to forget the present.”
Rodrigo has always been interested in exploring different genres – waltz, tango, chanson, samba – as if his records were journeys recorded and traversed by his gaze. This was confirmed by classics such as “Alma Mater”, “Cinema” or “A Mãe”, and it is in this lineage that “A Estranha Beleza da Vida” is inscribed. It is a cinematic record, a journey through classic songs and environments revised by the modernity of the treatment to which they are subjected, born from moments of happy inspiration in a warm embrace.
“It turned out to be much easier and faster to implement and record new ideas. It was all done in our studio; we were all very relaxed, not feeling that pressure that sometimes exists when you rent a professional studio. And everything went well, with fewer doubts and more defined ideas.”
Rodrigo counted on the recording with his usual accomplices in production and arrangements – Pedro Oliveira, João Eleutério, Pedro Moreira and Carlos Tony Gomes. And he invited an impressive array of big names: canadian Michelle Gurevich, sings on “Friend of a Friend”, the album’s first single; Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner plays “Who Can Resist”; the Spanish diva Martirio lends her “Voz de Sal””; the Portuguese singer/songwriter Surma participates in “O Ovo do Tempo” and the Spanish instrumentalist and producer Suso Sáiz in the title-track. Names that join a list of collaborators that already includes Beth Gibbons, Lula Pena, Scott Matthew Stuart Staples or Neil Hannon.
“A Estranha Beleza da Vida” is, therefore, a happy, luminous, free record. An album that breeds “the freedom of being able to try to create without barriers, without limits, without being tied to anything, but for which we need to find some peace that contributes to building ideas, sounds, harmonies, melodies.”
