Albaluna is one of those rare musical projects impossible to categorize under a genre. A band of the world more than a world music band, in Albaluna we find a mixture of influences from various Mediterranean cultures in a contemporary fusion already denoting traditional music in its core.
This exquisite sound palette has been pleasing many audiences around the globe. The band has released three albums; the most recent work is Amor, Ira & Desgosto (“Love, Wrath & Grief”), released in 2019, presented already at diverse stages all over Portugal, as well with dates in Macao (China), Spain, India, France, Germany, Montenegro and Morocco.
Here, the musical colors of many different cultures, times and nations blend with progressive rock to take the shape of an intriguing and unique band.
Pedro Fortunato – Albaluna’s music is not easy to categorize. If you had to place an Albaluna record on the shelves of a store, where would you put it?
Christian Marr’s, bassist and lyricist, on behalf of Albaluna – That’s a question that has been following us for quite a while now. It’s actually a topic that we frequently discuss among ourselves. Albaluna has been in a constant transformation in the past ten years, which was when we began. In the first years Albaluna could easily be placed in the European folk shelf. Our first album Alvorada da Lua proves it so, in my opinion.
With time and internal changes, the band absorbed many other influences and assumed different ways of composing and performing. By the time the second album Nau dos Corvos came out, back in 2016, the world music concept became a lot more obvious, with Mediterranean music, which includes traditional Turkish, medieval Iberian, Jewish, Arabic, and Balkan music playing a heavy part in the style of the group.
What also took a very important role in this metamorphosis was the constant curiosity and investigation regarding ethnic music, a quest headed by Ruben Monteiro, the founder and main composer of this group. This obviously influenced all of us to embrace these new approaches and instruments.
History serves a lot as a background for us, and we are very often dedicated to it in order to learn more about the places that influence us. Another thing that also inspired Albaluna was touring. The last three or four years have taken us to countries such as India, Italy, Morocco, Montenegro, Germany, China. It has been magnificent to have the opportunity to experience all this and learn so much from so many different cultures. I have been talking of folk, world music, Mediterranean music, but there’s another big genre in this band’s spirit, which is progressive rock. This is what provides the group’s solid and energetic sound, the strong background. Beside ethnic and ancient instruments as the Turkish baglama, the Iberian bagpipes, the Arab darbuka or the medieval vielle, you can find a modern sound, carried out by the drums, the keyboards and the electric bass. Here lies the contrast that legitimizes our fusion.
Our latest album Amor, Ira & Desgosto is the perfect example of this. If you go through the whole album, you stumble upon various ambiences, which may take you to India, or to medieval Europe, or to the prog soundscapes that have entered our spirits through some of the prog rock and metal bands.
To conclude this, I don’t think we fit perfectly into one particular genre. On one hand, that makes it difficult to focus on one specific set of events or festivals. On the other hand, the versatility of the bands’ distinct types of shows becomes really positive since we can easily adapt into performing in different contexts. Still, ethnic prog is a term that has been making sense to describe our music. Nevertheless, I think what is really important is that people enjoy what they’re listening to, whether it is folk, world music or prog rock.
Pedro Fortunato – How important is the influence of world music, especially that of the Mediterranean, in the band’s compositions?
Christian Marr’s – As I just said, the band is obviously a fusion of concepts. There are two main worlds in Albaluna: the ethnic side and the prog rock side. And inside the first one, Mediterranean music really stands out as a major influence. This because our country, Portugal, and the whole Iberian Peninsula, are a very curious case of what you can call “cultural fusion”.
Historically, this territory has been inhabited and influenced by numerous tribes, countries, religions, empires, etc. Greeks, Romans, Germanic Tribes, Jews, Arabs, Romani… you name them! Even the African slaves and merchants from all over the world played a part in defining our culture. And when you have something like that, you can easily comprehend the cultural continuum that bonds all countries of the Mediterranean. Because if you take out all borders, there lies a connection in costumes, folklore, food, music. Even in religion. Christianity, Islam and Judaism come from a common area and mind-set. And the cultures they generated fit, despite historical and political divides.
Portugal, although not being directly connected to that sea, is undoubtedly a Mediterranean country, because of the links and cultural heritage it bears on its back. And we took interest in this and began exploring Sephardic music, Turkish folk songs, Arab and North African music, among many others.
If you listen to an Albaluna song you may hear a dance rhythm from Serbia, or a Turkish makam, which roughly translates to music scales with particular expressions and rules, or you may hear an Iberian hurdy-gurdy, or bagpipes, which, on the contrary to what a lot of people believe, also have a strong presence in Iberian culture. And if you want to travel farther away, there is also Indian, Persian, Afghan music in it. The distances are virtually shortened and that’s one of the main purposes of our band: to bring different people, nations and cultures together. Without any kind of prejudice. Why be influenced by only a few genres if by every corner you can find a whole new musical world?
Pedro Fortunato – In which way are those traditional traits, let’s say, “diluted” with contemporary music?
Christian Marr’s – Diluted… I’d rather say mixed, blended. Because although there is a prog rock background and harmonic section, the front of the stage is dominated by instruments clearly pertaining to folk culture from all over the world. The saz baglama, the bagpipes, the jembe, the hurdy-gurdy … But I understand why you say that.
Some songs, for instance “Cascata Trófica”, from our last album, has a rock drive going on… It could be a prog metal song, although the main melodies are performed by the hurdy-gurdy, the vielle and the bagpipes… It’s curious, but that actually the kind of musical twist that we like to impose on our songs. It’s folk-oriented, but heavy. It’s heavy, but it isn’t metal, since you won’t find the conventional electric guitars trying to bring the house down, although we sometimes do anyways (laughs). Because it is all focused on the energy that we transmit, the idea we want to convey. For instance, Turkish music has a lot of metal-sounding rhythms and melodies, at least from our point of view. And that is the sweet spot where Albaluna stands. A heavy-not-heavy ethnic soundscape in which we are free to make whatsoever comes to mind. Did that even answer your question?
Pedro Fortunato – The most recent work, Amor, Ira & Desgosto (“Love, Wrath & Grief”) deals with feelings universal and transcendental to all cultures. Does that universality play an important role in your lyrics?
Christian Marr’s – Yes, of course. Musically we try to break barriers and unite cultures in our own creations, in an attempt to bring everyone together in this portrait of ethnicities and colours, of historical routes. And if there is one thing that we learned from traveling is that people are all alike, whichever tradition they were born in. Well, the language changes, faith may vary, complexion may be different, but in its essence, a person is a universal being, with very much the same kind of emotions and preoccupations, be it here or in India. It’s like if you strip someone of the social constructs they carry on their backs, you will be facing someone who laughs, cries, get angry, or sad.
People, universally speaking, want to love and be loved, to be happy and get home safely, only to find their friends and family in a comfortable and peaceful state of mind. We are a book of patterns. And that’s what our lyrics try to observe and absorb. Every single human being has felt love, wrath, grief, this last one representing any sort of deep suffering.
This album also deals with discrimination. “Gargull” and “Amor, Ira & Desgosto” refer prejudice and the feelings of someone who has been put apart. The gargoyle is just a metaphor for someone who is considered ugly and eerie, who is put “where the sun does not want to reach”. This has been repeated throughout.
“Chiaroscuro” is also a profound poem on the inner darkness and light that lies within every single person. The title of the song is a painting technique which uses both darkness and light to create contrasts and emphasize the duality of shadow and luminous areas. The lyrics are about life experiences. About how you must use what you learn to overcome all obstacles and what the past has offered you, which will never be the same. It’s about embracing your weaknesses and turning them into your character’s main traits, through internal strife.
The whole album revolves around this: strife and the will to overcome whatever blocks your way. But also, love and dreams appear.
“O Sonho” was written with these in mind. It’s about purposes you may have in life, especially referring to building a family and expanding your circle of loved ones. These are the three fires that burn inside every single person: Love, Wrath & Grief.
Pedro Fortunato – With influences so distinct in origin and in style, is it still possible to find the “Portuguese soul” in Albaluna?
Christian Marr’s – Yes, of course! The songs are sung in Portuguese. Some poems are based on Portuguese ideas and costumes. One of the songs begins with the line “Sem ter o mesmo azul do mar…”, which translates to “A blue distinct from that of the sea…”. Well, the sea is an ever-present notion in our people’s common sense. The country’s History is deeply bound to its connection to seafaring, and this quote is a flashback on Albaluna’s previous album Nau dos Corvos, based exactly on those concepts. But there are many other traits in our lyrics, but maybe not as obvious or ”tourist-inclined” as you would imagine.
“Penedo da Saudade” has a traditional feel to it, and is filled with nostalgic and bohemian thoughts, which can also be found in Fado songs or in Portuguese poetry. And musically speaking we focus a lot on the roots of Portuguese culture, the fusion of the three cultures that found their place here and cemented the society we see today: Christian, Jewish and Muslim worlds.
The sanfona, the hurdy-gurdy, is a Medieval instrument found in galician imagery. And Galicia is a sort of brotherlike territory to Portugal, sharing linguistic, historical and musical characteristics. And for me “Chiaroscuro” and “Penedo da Saudade” have a very strong Portuguese color.
One of the times we performed in Germany we found a leaflet that described Albaluna with a question: “What music is there left to discover in Portugal besides fado?”. It might not be fado or cante, but it deserves its place as Portuguese music with strong intercultural influences and references, and I think we might be in the right way to be recognized as such.
Angel Romero – Tell us a little about the band members and their background.
Christian Marr’s – There are many different backgrounds in the band.
Ruben Monteiro, the founder, mastermind and frontman of the project, started as a kid, attending conservatory to begin his musical learnings, embracing Classical piano and guitar. Afterwards, he dedicated himself to rock and heavy metal and played electric guitar in a band for many years. But the origins of Albaluna took shape when he turned his attention to traditional instruments from many different cultures. Through the years he took lessons from various renowned musicians from the world music scene and absorbed the ambients and musical traits of all these areas. Hurdy-gurdy, Turkish saz baglama, Afghani Rubab, bouzouki, oud, among many other string and wind instruments.
As for Dinis Coelho, he took interest in percussion from a very young age, especially those pertaining to Arab, African and Latin cultures. Therefore he studied in music schools and took lessons from percussionists to improve his skills. Arab darbuka, riq and bendir, African jembe, Persian tombak, Indian tabla, Turkish davul and many other instruments connect with Ruben’s, and form the ethnic side of Albaluna.
Raquel Monteiro, the third original member of the band, pursued Classical violin at the conservatory and performed with an orchestra for some time. Nevertheless, with Albaluna’s transformations, she later got involved in learning different styles, from European folk to a more Eastern approach, and investing, for instance, in other bowed instruments, such as the Indian dilruba, Turkish kemençe and the Medieval vielle.
I [Christian Marr’s] am the only foreigner in the band. While already in Portugal, at the age of nine or ten, I began having piano classes and later switched on to guitar. In my teens I picked up the bass, which would become my main instrument and the one I studied the most, with private teachers. I played in a rock band for some years and in 2014 I joined Albaluna. In the meantime I also started learning double bass, bouzouki and other stringed instruments. Well, aside from the music, I also write poetry and some of my works served as lyrics for the band’s songs.
The wind instruments in the band are played by Carla Costa. With a background in many different performative arts, she learned whistles and both Portuguese and Galician bagpipes. She performed with a Medieval band before entering Albaluna in 2015 and since then she has embraced Oriental instruments such as the Turkish ney. Besides that, she dances in some the band’s shows, adopting, and also adapting, elements of Middle Eastern and Afghani cultures.
Tiago Santos was the last to enter the group. After having played in many bands as a freelance drummer and having studied with several professional Portuguese and foreign drummers, he accepted the band’s invitation in 2019, and immediately recorded the most recent album. He also assumes the Turkish davul in some live performances.
And last but not least, we also count with the keyboardist Luís Runa. A very close friend to all of us, he appears only in some of the band’s concerts as an additional musician. He studied both piano and keyboards and has toured with many bands throughout the years. He also entered the band in 2019, as happened with Tiago, and also contributed to “Amor, Ira & Desgosto”.
Some members of the band also pursued other academic paths which also take an important role in the band’s ideas and creations: Ruben studied archaeology, I [Christian] studied history and Raquel embraced musicology in university.
Although me and Carla also have some pieces of our own creation, Ruben is our main composer. As a multi-instrumentalist he “designs” the songs, as a producer he mixes and delivers the compositions. In the latest album me and him worked together as I provided the lyrics. I found this last process very interesting and we have all been working independently and with a very strong connection among ourselves.
Angel Romero – What traditional and modern instruments do you use?
Christian Marr’s – Well, during the whole band’s career, there has been a display of many instruments, from different origins and with different functions. Nowadays, our modern instruments are the drums, the electric fretted and fretless bass, the keyboards and the electric guitar, which lay the foundations of the Albaluna’s sound. But the exotic and colorful aesthetics of Albaluna come from the traditional and ethnic apparatus. The Iberian hurdy-gurdy, the Turkish saz bağlama, the medieval vielle, the African jembe, the Arab darbuka, the tin whistles, bagpipes, the Turkish ney, Indian tabla, and so on… There are even more but we would be here for ages! Also a very interesting part of it is that we use a lot of effect pedals on our instruments, such as distortions, choruses, phasers and delays, which work together to paint this ethnic and proggy sound portrait.
Angel Romero – What type of venues do you perform at?
Christian Marr’s – Following our concept of versatility, we present two discrete shows: with “Amor, Ira & Desgosto” we deliver this fiery onstage act, playing our most recent album but also older songs in what we privately call “full power” (laughs). This relates to our fusion of modern and antique instruments, with both Portuguese-sung and instrumental compositions. We usually take this to folk, rock and fusion festivals, not forgetting the theaters and music halls, from Portugal to China, as happened in our 2019 tour.
On the other hand, when presenting “Orient Express” we perform in museums, galleries, theatres and places of worship such as churches or other temples, in a very elegant and eclectic show, with acoustic and folk instruments as our only tools. This results in a very peaceful and ethereal moment, easily involving the audience. With both shows we captive our followers in a very different but complementary way, keeping our musical integrity and concept always in sight.
Angel Romero – Mainstream media ignores world music and progressive music as well. How do you promote your music?
Christian Marr’s – Unfortunately, we found that to be true since the band’s early years. There is a very wide world music and folk circuit, although it gets few or absolutely no attention from the media. The same with prog rock. And when you mix both, sometimes it can get hard. We belong nowhere and at the same time we belong everywhere, as has been proven to us sometimes.
This band is very hard-working and we put a lot of effort in producing, managing, creating, and promoting. Aside from some managers that work with us and help us on certain areas, we are totally independent. We have been so from the beginning.
Each and every single one of us is simultaneously a musician, an agent, a manager, a promoter, etc. We are all very close friends and family members and this is what we do for a living, at the same time we have our own families and loved ones who have support us, unconditionally.
As our main professional purpose in life, our effort of self-promotion is very important. We try to gather as much contacts as we can and each one of us establishes connections with other bands, promoters, festivals, agencies, magazines… With this kind of experience we all try to learn something about the music industry, always with a very humble but ambitious view.
Nowadays, the quality of imagery and video are very much taken into account when considering a project. And having observed that, we invest a lot in material for photoshoots and video recording. Besides, we use photographs from professionals that go to our shows and happily, we can sometimes count with friends that work in the area. Furthermore, we keep our website and social media up-to-date, with all the information about our music, tour, and so on.
Platforms such as YouTube, Spotify, iTunes or Bandcamp, for instance, have also revealed themselves very useful in creating a wider range of listeners and publicise our songs worldwide. On the one hand, the accessibility of these ways of promotion are very positive because it makes it possible to reach more people, including fans and organisers. On the other hand, the fact of it being so global may turn out to be negative since anyone can do the same. That makes it somehow harder to cut through. But regarding your question, this is basically it. But before all this, for us, the most important is keeping the music authentic and innovative, creating the art that we want to explore and not what we are told to. And promotion only comes after that. Otherwise we would take the risk of becoming slaves of the visual and standardized state of art.
Angel Romero – If you could gather any additional musicians or musical groups to collaborate with, whom would that be?
Christian Marr’s – Oh! Good one…! As I have said before, the band is humble, but ambitious. We are fierce, but we absorb and try to learn from anyone who is open to teach us something. We are curious and interested people. Talk to us about music or history and you’ll be sure to have our attention.
Throughout the years we have collaborated with other artists. The music video of “Gargull” we released in 2019 is, for example, a collaboration with Anymamundy, a Portuguese performative arts company led by two of the band’s closest friends. Pedro Estevam, from that group, is also a musician and played ney on our song “Taksim Anymamundy”, from our previous album Nau dos Corvos.
Helena Madeira, a Portuguese singer, also sang on our “Hija Mia” music video. But in some cases, we might not even speak the same mother tongue, as happened in India, Morocco and China, but we speak through the universal language of sounds and rhythms. In India we did an artistic residence with two Baul musicians, the brothers Saddhu and Kangal. They only spoke Bengali but three days had passed and we were performing a fusion of Portuguese and Indian songs we had arranged during those rehearsals.
In Morocco, after some concerts, we found ourselves in the basement of a music club with dozens of international musicians. This resulted in a three-hour-long jam session with modern and traditional Arab and African instruments. It was absolutely amazing and life-changing.
In China, some of the band’s members were invited to perform with an orchestra of hundreds of people coming from the most distinct places. Essentially, we collaborate and invite musicians who we admire and with whom we feel a strong connection.
For the song “Chiaroscuro”, we invited my teacher Ricardo Dikk, whom I look up to and whom I consider one of my favorite bassists, and Sandrine Orsini, an overwhelming singer. It was an honour to have them perform our song. And these are just a few examples of what we have done in the past. These are the types of collaborations that we enjoy doing.
Albaluna loves to connect with other musicians and/or artists in general. Because art is about transmitting ideas, concepts, feelings and creating a world of our own. And why not let others help us to build our world? We teach, we learn, we get involved. And that is one of the most beautiful things about music. The spirit of communion.
Angel Romero – Aside from the new album, do you have any additional upcoming projects to share with us?
Christian Marr’s – Yes, indeed! We are restless (laughs). We cannot reveal everything for now, but one of our goals is to keep releasing music videos, EP’s and, most of all, albums. And for that we may already have some things in store for this year. It is also going to be a very busy one because of our tour, but there are surely things around the corner. Some of them ready to publish.
Perhaps, something revolving around the “Orient Express” show… Anyway, I will keep it secret and let the mystery dissolve itself as the year unfolds. Follow us around and you will be sure to hear about it the right place and at the right time. What I can say is that we are gathering inspiration for a next full-length album. But for now, we will be taking “Amor, Ira & Desgosto” as far as we can!
Thank you for having us and let’s hope we meet again sometime in the future.
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Interview by Pedro Fortunato and Angel Romero
More at Albaluna.
Author: admin
