Ricardo de Noronha is a Portuguese world music percussionist and wind player with over twenty years experience. He played in the award-winning band Mandrágora as well as other Portuguese bands, including Capagrilos and Aldebaran.
Since relocating to the UK, he has worked with Moroccan oud player Soufian Saihi’s group Karama and guested with Simo Lagnawi’s Gnawa Blues All Stars.
Furthermore, Ricardo de Noronha has worked with The Radial Band alongside Griselda Sanderson, Louis Bingham and David Insua-cao.
In 2017, he released Veer, a collaboration with bowed string player Griselda Sanderson. On the album, Ricardo de Noronha played fujara flutes he built.
Ricardo de Noronha said about the instruments he manufactured: “The wind instruments I play are the fujaras, which I build myself, inspired by traditional shepherd’s flutes from Slovakia. There is a traditional way of playing, but as it’s an instrument based in improvisation I have a more open approach.
“I play as I feel. It was the process of building the instrument and then recording it that was inspiring. I do like the sound and the openness you can have while playing it. The flute on ‘Srivatsa’ was a test flute that I was making with an unusual tuning. The track was more about the percussion rhythm, which came first. Then I decided to use that flute to add a melody, and it sounded good with that Arabic feel to it. In ‘Folia’ it was a fortunate event because I was experimenting with playing two harmonic flute pipes at the same time and it sounded very interesting, so we decided to record them.”
Discography
São Bassáridas (Capagrilos, 2013)
Mandrágora (Mandrágora, 2012)
Escarpa (Mandrágora, 2008)
Veer (Waulk Records, 2017)
Author: Angel Romero
Angel Romero y Ruiz has dedicated his life to musical exploration. His efforts included the creation of two online portals, worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. In addition, Angel is the co-founder of the Transglobal World Music Chart, a panel of world music DJs and writers that celebrates global sounds. Furthermore, he delved into the record business, producing world music studio albums and compilations. His works have appeared on Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Indígena Records and Music of the World.