Além do Rio
Between 2023 and 2024, we initiated the Ad Orientem project, within which we carried out the acoustic mapping of twelve iconic monuments in northern Portugal, in partnership with the Regional Directorate of Culture of the North and the Romanesque Route, and with the support of DGArtes and Antena 2.
We conducted the scientific and empirical analysis of the acoustic behavior and the architectural and practical conditions of each space, with the aim of creating a website that professionals in the music industry can use to select places for concerts and professional recordings, thus seeking to give a new life to the monuments in question!
In addition to the technical work, a local traditional song was selected for each monument, which we recorded with a new arrangement, by the Ensemble Cardo-Roxo or a guest composer, and we scheduled a live concert for the community of the respective municipality.
At the end of 2024, after analyzing all the information and making the recordings, we edited this album with the twelve pieces chosen for the project. Thus our "Além do rio" (Beyond the River) is born, in which you can enjoy a very particular sound, because, on the one hand, unlike other albums by Ensemble Cardo-Roxo, the entire repertoire is played by the same trio, on the other hand,
each selected collection was recorded in its municipality of origin and, therefore, each one was performed and captured in a different monument. This result is, therefore, unified by the instrumentation and the geographical limits of the collections (all from the north of the country), but plural due to the diversity of recording locations and themes of the collections.