Madredeus - A Lisbon Story

The world came to know them through Wim Wenders' film "Lisbon Story", in which they appeared to sing the songs of the soundtrack. But in Portugal, Madredeus had already been enchanting audiences for some time with their ethereal, intense music. A predominantly acoustic sound, steeped in Mediterranean atmospheres, topped by the crystalline voice of Teresa Salgueiro.

The group was formed in 1985 in Lisbon from the meeting of two bassists, Pedro Magalhães and Rodrigo Leão. The two decided to relieve the boredom of the Portuguese pop scene by playing a different kind of music, choosing to write songs for two acoustic guitars. In 1986, Francisco Ribeiro, a friend of Pedro Ayres and a cello student, was invited to join the group, but it soon became clear that what was needed was a female voice. "I was sixteen," recalls Teresa Salgueiro, "and I used to sing fado or bossa nova songs, mostly a cappella, in the alleys and venues of Barrio Alto, the heart of Lisbon's nightlife. It was in one of those venues that I met Pedro and Rodrigo. And I immediately found myself identifying with their music. It wasn't traditional fado, but it felt familiar to me".

On first hearing that prodigious voice, the musicians realized they had finally found the singer they were looking for. The group then began rehearsing in a wing of the former Madre de Deus convent, in Xabregas, in eastern Lisbon. It was precisely for this reason that friends started calling them Madredeus. In 1987 came their debut album, Os dias de Madredeus.

In 1988 the group began performing in Portugal, and two years later released their second album, Existir, recorded with the help of other musicians who would later be absorbed into the band's permanent lineup. Their success was such that the group could afford the luxury of recording a live double album, Lisboa, at the Coliseu dos Recreios, with the participation of a guitar master like Carlos Paredes and an 80-strong choir brought in from the Azores.

In 1992 Madredeus began their first tours abroad and released the live double album at home. But the chance to break through worldwide came thanks to Wim Wenders. The German director invited them to compose the music for a documentary about Lisbon. Madredeus isolated themselves in the heart of the English countryside, at Great Linford Manor Studios, and began writing material for what would become the sound of "Lisbon Story". The songs were enough for a couple of albums, the first of which, O espírito de paz, was released in 1994, in between concerts. The following year came Ainda, which contains the soundtrack to "Lisbon Story" and earned the Portuguese band international recognition. It's a blend of melancholy songs and joyful dances (the whirling "Alfama", named after Lisbon's oldest neighborhood), subtle melodies and infectious rhythms. An album that delivers powerful emotions, as in the title track "Ainda", a piece of touching intensity, built on Salgueiro's dreamy vocalizations that combine innocence and sensuality.

Italy is one of the countries where their success has been strongest. "I think it's also due to a series of factors shared with Portugal," explains Carlos Maria Trindade, the group's keyboardist, "such as our origins, Latin culture and the Catholic religion. When we're in countries like Italy and Spain, we feel at home. The further north we go, the harder it is for us to find stability, a sense of harmony".

But just as their popularity reaches its peak, something starts to crack. At the start of 1997, Pedro Ayres, Teresa Salgueiro, José Peixoto and Carlos Maria Trindade begin rehearsing new material, and a few months later they formalise their split from the two Madredeus members they'd fallen out with, namely Francisco Ribeiro and Gabriel Gomes. Fernando Judice joins the group, settling the line-up into a quintet.

With this new lineup, Madredeus head to the Condulmer studios in Zorban di Modigliano, near Venice, to record the songs for their new album, "O Paraiso". It's not a random choice. "We think this is, so to speak, a 'Mediterranean' album, the kind of music you could listen to on a boat trip around Venice," Trindade recalls. "Venice is still an important port, a place of exchange between peoples. That's why we decided to make the record in Italy."

The album also marks a shift in the band's musical direction. There are no instrumental interludes, and the atmospheres turn sunnier. "Maybe our music is now less 'dramatic'," Trindade explains. "Teresa's voice is as dramatic as ever on many tracks, but the instrumental parts have softened. The guitar sounds are sharper. The bass always comes in after the guitars. The keyboards, meanwhile, simply sketch 'colours' around the guitars. What we did was write and record music for guitars and voice, enriched with a few 'aromas' from the other instruments."

The group's gradual departure from its fado roots also continues. "I don't think Madredeus should be defined as a fado group," Trindade notes. "A fado group is essentially built around Portuguese guitars, a bass and a voice. There are never keyboards or synthesisers in a fado group. Madredeus, on the other hand, was born out of a keyboardist and a guitarist/bassist. We were only influenced by fado because Teresa is a fado singer. Madredeus is a contemporary group."

The album comes out at the end of 1998, and is followed, in spring 2000, by the compilation Antologia, which includes some of their classics alongside tracks from "Ainda". A few examples? "O pastor", a dreamy melody carried by Salgueiro over violin notes, "As brumas do futuro", a poignant ballad for piano and voice, "A vaca de fogo", a showcase for their most gloomy and dramatic spoken-word delivery, and "O paraiso", a mystical ode sung in the highest register, amid guitar arpeggios and background keyboards. "It's very spiritual music," says Teresa Salgueiro. "We try to uncover the musicality of Portuguese poetry, of the Portuguese soul, of the urban landscape. Our songs are about life's feelings, about hope, pain, love. They're not our own personal stories, but those of humanity in general."

In 2001 Madredeus release Movimento, a refined, ethereal album that nonetheless perhaps falls short of expectations. Increasingly less fado and increasingly drawn to a peculiar brand of new age for guitar and synthesizer, Madredeus's music seems to have lost the dramatic tension of their early days. Even Teresa Salgueiro's voice now sounds thinner and more restrained. The vocalist rediscovers verve and passion in melancholy pieces like "Afinal" and "O labirinto parado", or in the unusual vocalisations of "Vozes no mar". But the record's overall tone is rather monotonous. Even so, Madredeus can still enchant audiences worldwide, playing to sold-out crowds.

Electronico (2002) is a collection of remixes of tracks the band released in 2002, while Euphoria is a double live album capturing a concert performed together with the Flemish Radio Orchestra.

The outcome of their studio albums, however, is no longer illuminated by the grace of years past. This is confirmed by Um Amor Infinito (2004) too, which, despite a few pleasant ballads ("Cantador da noite", "Uma estatua", "Suave tristeza"), gets lost in sounds that are by now mannered and lacking in intensity. An easy-listening world music that often strays into an improbable acoustic chill-out. The arrangements are also out of focus, with Carlos Maria Trindade's synthesizer failing to reproduce the poignant spirit of strings and accordion.

The following Faluas Do Tejo fares better, immediately showing a happier, more carefree mood, returning to sing of Lisbon's alleys and canals. Faluas is in fact the name of a long river boat, while Tejo is the Portuguese name for the Tagus, the river at whose estuary the Portuguese capital was founded. Teresa Salgueiro performs with renewed verve the lyrics and music of Pedro Ayres Magalhães, Fernando Júdice and Carlos Maria Trindade.

Much in demand among international musicians (she has also collaborated with Angelo Branduardi on his album "L'infinitamente piccolo"), Teresa Salgueiro still manages to thrill theatres all over the world. And yet the former child prodigy from the alleys of Barrio Alto hasn't lost her simplicity. During an interview with the Spanish newspaper "El Pais", asked "do you feel you're the new Amalia Rodriguez?" (the queen of fado, who had recently died, ed.), she replied: "It's so hard for me to talk about this. We try to represent Portugal to the world, just as Amalia did. But we don't feel burdened with the enormous responsibility of her legacy. Our only responsibility is to sing and play our country as we see and imagine it."

But today, more than ever, the heart of Portugal beats to the delicate sound of Teresa's voice. A talent that couldn't resist the lure of a solo career: in November 2005 she released her first solo album, Obrigado, featuring illustrious guests such as Caetano Veloso, Carlos Nuñez, Zeca Baleiro and José Carreras.

Two years later came La Serena, the result of a collaboration with the Lusitania ensemble. A decidedly unusual collection of covers: these are the songs Teresa used to listen to while touring with Madredeus, written by a hugely varied range of authors: Amalia Rodrigues, Cesaria Evora, Chavela Vargas, Edith Piaf, Marisa Monte, Caetano Veloso, Nat King Cole, as well as Lucio Dalla's "Caruso".

The Portuguese "serena" reinterprets them in her own inimitable way, reaffirming all the grace and class of her singing.

Meanwhile, Madredeus continue on their path, releasing the album Metaphony (2008) together with Banda Cósmica. It's hard to say what's left of their original sound. Certainly the instruments have changed, with little regard for the acoustic rigour of the original lineup: electric guitar, bass and drums take centre stage, on tracks steeped in Brazilian, Caribbean and African flavours, yet with more than one nod to international pop-rock. In place of the lullabies of the past, the new Madredeus craft ethno-pop songs that wouldn't be out of place on an album by Bebel Gilberto or Césaria Évora.

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