Omiri – Ribatejo e Estremadura Vol.II: Abrantes e Alcobaça (Repasseado, 2023)
Omiri presents Ribatejo e Estremadura Vol. II: Abrantes e Alcobaça, a concept album, available in book/CD forma. It exclusively features field recordings from the municipalities of Abrantes and Alcobaça. The culmination of over six months of fieldwork in these regions, the project delves deep into the local culture, traditions, and identities.
The album serves not only as a musical endeavor, but also as a documentation of the intangible heritage of Abrantes and Alcobaça, instilling a sense of pride among the residents in their cultural identity. This marks Omiri’s fourth concept project under the stewardship of Vasco Ribeiro Casais, who adeptly and gracefully captures, nurtures, and contemporizes local traditions and identities with nuanced electronic beats and other fascinating innovations.
Anthropologist Miguel Gomes Costa lauds Omiri’s approach, highlighting how the project revives the music ingrained in these regions, imbuing it with a fresh, multiflavored, carefree spirit. Gomes Costa writes: “The work of the Omiri project, by the hand of Vasco Ribeiro Casais, seeks precisely to (re)discover the music that remained and still lives in these territories, in a new and carefree way, playing and living music as an act of ludic enjoyment, but also of work, religiosity, and ritual – and which is capable of reaching the younger generations, who receive it with genuine enthusiasm and affection!”
Vasco Ribeiro Casais plays viola braguesa, cavaquinho, Portuguese bagpipes, bouzouki, and nyckelharpa. In addition, he oversees all artistic and technical aspects of the album, from field recordings to composition, recording, mixing, mastering, graphic design, and photography.
Buy Ribatejo e Estremadura Vol. II: Abrantes e Alcobaça.
Author: Iliana Cabrera
