so happy together

Vera Mantero vocals Vítor Rua mutant portuguese guitar
Nuno Rebelo mutant portuguese guitar + videos
This project departed from Vitor Rua’s idea of setting up this trio to make music for the 16 Zen poems of Herberto Helder, integrating in this concept the “mutant Portuguese guitars” which Nuno Rebelo has been exploring since 1993.
The creative and subversive interpretation of the poems by Vera Mantero, made it necessary to visually present the poems, and video projection was the media chosen to do so. This fact gave origin to the 16 video animations, created by Nuno Rebelo. Besides their first function of presenting the poems in their original form, the animations also function as a set for the performance, in a playful plastic interpretation of the poems.
The mutant portuguese guitars of Nuno Rebelo and Vítor Rua appear in this context drawing different soundscapes which act as textures for the poems, destroyed and rebuilt through Vera Mantero’s voice. In the "parlato" of the voicals, in the lyric vocalizations and whispers, in the fragile and precious sound of the mutant portuguese guitars and in the psychedelic quality of the video, some kind of Zen is ventured, a Zen that although coming from eastern and ancient origins, risks a contemporary and western way of being, such as – in our opinion – Herberto Helder did in his 16 Zen poems.
The portuguese guitar is a traditional string intrument from Portugal which stands as a national symbol, usually conected with tradition and past. In the frame of this project (and in other projects of Nuno Rebelo) this instrument is prepared, digitally processed and played through experimental techniques, leaving behind its conservative conotation and making it look into the future by placing it in the context of experimentalism and new music.
The videos presented next are some of the 16 animations that are used as a visual background for the concerts. Although there are english and french versions of the videos, here you have Herberto Helder's poems in their original portuguese version.
quando o peixe se move
translation of the poem: "when the fish moves, the water becomes troubled; when the bird flies, a feather"
cavalo
Translation of the poem: "ride your horse on a sword's edge, hide as you can between the flames"
Translation of the poem: "The hills are blue on their own; on their own, white are the clouds"
Translation of the poem: "If you take water, you'll think that mountains move; if you raise the veil you'll see the cliffs run away."