P. Elf [Portuguese Elf] is not a band really, nor is his music or lyrics uniquely Portuguese [or Elvish for that matter]. He is, in reality, a simple man of Portuguese/Irish ancestry who once shaved his handsome goatee and was told by his sister that he looked like an "elfkin". Fearing persecution, he quickly grew his goatee back, but the name stuck. For many years he lived in seclusion in California making secretive music, only occasionally working with other musicians. Many of these recordings survived this time period and were archived in 2001. A few releases were commissioned privately and they are almost never found in record stores, unless they've wound up in the budget bin for 25 cents. In the years that followed, he married a lovely wife and fathered a beautiful daughter. Life seemed normal. The tapes were nearly forgotten until recently uncovered during his family's flee to the state of Montana.
The sound is difficult to categorize, but most commonly falls in the range of folkish "noise-mash" with alternating ribbons of funk, blues and "other" throughout. The songs are typically composed of layers of buzzed-out samples and a mixture of live instrumentation and synthesizers.
Today, P. Elf is a happily married family man persuing a career in web graphic design. Says Elf, "I love my wife, she supports all my confounded artistic ventures." While the relevance of P. Elf's music may be unclear, thankfully these recordings are being converted from the original tapes and made available for sampling here on MySpace! Choose a song and allow your subliminal mind to be forever altered!
P. ELF invites your comments and feedback!
