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Amuleto Apotropaico

(Portugal) 
A duo rooted in Porto, with shared memories and past lives steeped in the folklore of Santa Maria da Feira, Amuleto Apotropaico made their recorded debut this year with the first release from the brand-new label Perf. Comprised of António Feiteira on drums and electronics and Francisco Pedro Oliveira on guitar, flute, and electronics, this pair of futuristic sorcerers conjures in their self-titled album a liturgy all their own - coherent, singular, and drawn from live recordings made over the past two years. The record stands as proof of a deep artistic kinship and a clear vision of the many shapes this music might take - a mirage of some other folklore's future, flowing fluidly through cybernetic landscapes where melody reveals itself in mystery, drum bursts pulse with sensitivity, guitar lines drift dreamlike, and a continuous sense of hypnosis prevails. Here, the borders of free jazz, exploratory kosmische, and the freest forms of pan-global folk blur into a spell of their own making.

Photo: Francisco Fidalgo