Omiri is the project of Portuguese multi-instrumentalist and composer Vasco Ribeiro Casais. Omiri combines Portuguese traditional folk music with electronics and stunning live visuals.
In 2019, Omiri released Alentejo Vol.I: Évora. Invited by the Évora City Council, Omiri collected the traditions, arts, cante (traditional singing from Alentejo), crafts and rituals of the local people with the goal of creating a unique show and an album. The project features the cowbell craftsmen, weavers, sculptors, singers, washerwomen, the Cante Alentejano, typographers, barbers, carpenters, cobblers, the campaniça guitar and everything else that is alive in Évora.
Vasco Ribeiro Casais says about the project: “The collections for this work were carried out between January and June 2019, a temporary window that made me leave out many traditions that I would like to have included, like the picking of cork, the wine making process from harvesting to bottling, the harvesting of the olive, among many others. The Municipality of Évora has a lot to offer, much more than what I could capture and include in this work, but, as its title says, a first volume is just the beginning of something and who knows what the future will bring?”
Domingos Morais from the Institute for Literature and Tradition Studies at the School of Social and Human Sciences of the New University of Lisbon says: “The reinvention of traditional music is one of the sources that Vasco uses, for his knowledge of the records made by ethnomusicologists and disseminators of the songs of the peoples (all those who sensitize him). He is a poly-instrumentalist by choice, when he looks for each one of the instruments, searching for its tone and potential sound as well as their unique performative potentialities.”
Alentejo Vol.I: Évora features guest appearances by Afonso Branco, Cantares de Évora, Vozes do Imaginário, Teresa Branquinho and Gigabombos do Imaginário.
In 2023, Omiri released Ribatejo e Estremadura Vol. II: Abrantes e Alcobaça.
Discography:
Baile Electrónico (2017)
Alentejo Vol.I: Évora (2019)
Ribatejo e Estremadura Vol.II: Abrantes e Alcobaça (Repasseado, 2023)
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.