The album is released this Friday, 25 April, by Galileo Music<\/p>\n
An album, more Portuguese than ever, where melodies become urgency and words gain ground – with choirs, percussion and ancient complicities tracing the portrait of a real and intimate country.The name of composer Rodrigo Le\u00e3o has been known to the Portuguese public since the days of the band S\u00e9tima Legi\u00e3o. He later joined Madredeus, a project with which he increased his visibility. In 1993, he released his first album under his own name, Ave Mundi Luminar, launching a solo career that would include an extensive discography, including soundtracks and collaborations with artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy), Beth Gibbons (Portishead) and Michelle Gurevich.<\/p>\n
Now, thirty-two years after his debut as a solo musician, comes O Rapaz da Montanha. And there’s no avoiding the adjective: Rodrigo Le\u00e3o’s new disc is surprising, both musically and in terms of the composer’s career. He himself recognises this: \u2018It was an unexpected record. I’ve had it in my head for three years and I’ve been building it in a very focussed way, in a different way to my previous albums, in which the composition came out without any specific time or intention. Here, starting from that phrase by Ana Carolina [Costa] \u2018If God forgives those who deceive\/who forgives God?\u2019 [included in the theme Cadeira Preta] I immediately began to think about what I was going to do. And now that it’s finished, I think it’s the most Portuguese album I’ve made to date.\u2019<\/p>\n
This notion of identity is true: it runs through several of the composer’s discs and is visible in the compilation Os Portugueses (2018). And indeed, this new disc could fit into that identity, which in one way or another has always been present in Le\u00e3o’s work.<\/p>\n
Now, in 2025, O Rapaz da Montanha does indeed present a change of form and substance. Musically, the use of choirs (in which the composer himself participates), which reinforces a collective feeling, and a marked percussion in some themes immediately evokes some Portuguese cantatautors from the 1970s, something that Le\u00e3o recognises.<\/p>\n
The lyrical approach also changes: the ethereal and melancholic feelings that are so well represented in Le\u00e3o’s work give way here to a more direct language, which dialogues with a difficult but true reality. The words show men \u2018trapped in that gear\u2019 (O Rapaz da Montanha), subjugated women with a desire for liberation (Guarda-te), people searching for themselves (Andava Eu, Estranho Imperfeito), the hard labour at sea (Lobos do Mar) or characters struggling with their mortality and being held hostage in the most terrible of territories – the country of \u2018If\u2019, of what remains to be done (Madrugada). As usual, Ana Carolina Costa is the author of most of the words, with the exceptions of Gito Lima (Estranho Imperfeito), Francisco Menezes (Esperan\u00e7a) and Jo\u00e3o Pedro Diniz (Vento Sem Fim). In the end, what remains is a call to action, to break free from the shackles of the days, a struggle that is worth facing but that never does without the sky of hope. \u2018There’s nothing down there \/ but there’s so much to do!\u2019 we sing in The Mountain Boy.<\/p>\n
Rodrigo Le\u00e3o’s creative world has always been intimately linked to affections, whether through family or friends. Unsurprisingly, new and old accomplices appear on this album, such as Pedro Oliveira (childhood friend, singer with S\u00e9tima Legi\u00e3o, co-producer of the album with Le\u00e3o and Jo\u00e3o Eleut\u00e9rio and a musician on several songs and singer on Esperan\u00e7a) or a friend and accomplice from various projects (S\u00e9tima Legi\u00e3o, Madredeus and Os Poetas): accordionist Gabriel Gomes. There is also room for guests such as Jos\u00e9 Peixoto (classical guitar), Carlos Poeiras (accordion), Francisco Palma (voice) or illustrator Tiago Manuel, who effortlessly become honorary citizens of Le\u00e3o’s work. His close family also collaborates: in addition to the author of the words and his wife Ana Carolina Costa, his children Sofia, Rosa and Ant\u00f3nio are present throughout the disc. Even the musicians Le\u00e3o called in for this disc reflect years of work and complicity: singer Ana Vieira – the disc’s main voice – Viviena Tupikova (violin), Bruno Silva (viola), Celina da Piedade (accordion), Carlos Tony Gomes (cello and author of the string arrangements), Jo\u00e3o Eleut\u00e9rio (guitar, bass and synthesiser), Ant\u00f3nio Quintino (double bass) and Frederico Gracias (drums and percussion).<\/p>\n
It would be wrong to say that O Rapaz da Montanha represents a revolution in Rodrigo Le\u00e3o’s musical universe. Rather, it’s a consequent evolution, which even though it brings changes, doesn’t abandon a millimetre of the composer’s musical identity. With an already long and remarkable career, restlessness and curiosity remain alive in Rodrigo Le\u00e3o.<\/p>\n
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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