 TOWARDS
A NEW FADO
Third album of this 28 years old fado singer, the fourth one
in fact, if one takes into account Cristina Branco sings Slauerhoff,
released only in the Netherlands, Corpo Iluminado is already the
album of Cristina Branco’s coming of age.
Coming of age for her voice, which has evolved in a few short years:
she succeded in preserving the freshness and emotion of her first
recordings. But with a new mastery: her low register has gained
subtle colours, her ton fits marvelously with the atmosphere of
the poem she sings, and she passes easily from sadness to merriness,
from “saudade” to apparent off-handedness from one piece
to the other.
Coming of age in the choice of the poems, for the songs are answering
one another all along the album. Somehow as if the poem of David
Mourao-Ferreira which gave its name to the album, with its sensuous,
almost physical words, bore in itself questions about the existence,
the other, questions the other fados all try to answer.
And finally, coming of age for her music, for Custodio Castelo’s
compositions create atmospheres where fado never dared venture before.
It is only to listen to Corpo Iluminado to discover it: a dark,
mysterious music at the start, where the melody seems suspended
to the interrogations of the singer, evolving into a more fado-like
rhythm, to end at last in a long, final questioning. There never
was such a structure in the fado. Take Musa, with its apparent light-heartedness,
where the second verse is played, sung, hummed or pinched on the
Portuguese guitar five times as author and singer are trying to
understand their “muse”.
All this gives Cristina Branco’s fado a truly original, evolutive
style, a new fado blending tradition and modernity. A tradition
that Cristina claims openly as hers: many fados on the album are
famous, such as Disse-te Adeus a Morri or Meu Amor é Marinheiro.
The groupe in itself remains close to tradition, with Custodio Castelo
playing the Portuguese guitar, Alexandre Silva the guitar and Fernando
Maia the bass guitar. Moreover, Cristina chose to pay tribute to
Amalia Rodrigues’ former musicians, who accompany her for a
moving fado.
As regards modernity, it can be felt in every track of the album:
in the choices of composer Custodio Castelo, in the words of many
authors from the new generation of Portuguese poetry, especially
women ; in the choice of guest musicians, in the singing of a fado
in a dialect from Northern Portugal which has only been officially
acknowledged two years ago by the Portuguese state.
All this gives Corpo Iluminado a major role in Cristina Branco’s
career: a reflexion of the singer, her generation and a country
that, since its integration in the European Community, aspires to
be recognized both for its modernity and its tradition. Who other
than Cristina Branco and the new fado could better express it?
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