Rodrigo Leão Cinema Project
The Strange Beauty of Life
This show, in which Rodrigo Leão presents himself as the Rodrigo Leão cinema project, brings together repertoire from the three albums released in 2020 and 2021 (O Method, Avis 2020 and A Estranha Beleza da Vida), as well as a selection of classic themes by the composer. It is therefore quite eclectic, with a wide range of musical styles ranging from neoclassical to waltz. On stage, Rodrigo Leão (synthesizer and piano and choirs) is accompanied by his usual band: Ângela Silva (voice, synthesizer and metallophone), Viviena Tupikova (voice, violin and piano), Carlos Tony Gomes (cello) and João Eleutério (guitar , bass, synthesizer, percussion, indian harmonium and choirs). In many concerts, a local youth choir joins the band, interpreting, among others, the choral parts recorded on the album O Method.
Also noteworthy are the images projected on video on stage by Gonçalo Santos, which include drawings by Rodrigo Leão himself. Throughout his career, Rodrigo has composed and thought of some of his albums as if they were films, a story that he wants to tell. From there, just like in a movie, it’s about casting the right voices for each character that plays a role in this narrative. Complemented with sound environments and music, Rodrigo performs the final editing that gives each record a diverse musical range, dictated by the history of each “film”. This was the path followed in albums such as Alma Mater, Cinema or A Mãe, and it is in this lineage that A Estranha Beleza da Vida is inscribed. Works in which the guests are the characters that integrate the story, as happened with Adriana Calcanhoto, Beth Gibbons, Ryuichi Sakamoto or Neil Hannon. In common, more than a musical style, these albums share the idea of thinking of an album as if it were a film, assuming cinema as a style transversal to all projects. The Strange Beauty of Life began to take shape at the end of the year. “I started thinking about this job in October 2020, the month I returned to Lisbon after months of confinement in the middle of the countryside. I felt a difference right from the first songs, something more positive, happier, different from the environments of the previous album. Some took me to a time somewhat distant from the one we live in now.
Maybe it wasn’t by chance and it was even the result of an unconscious attempt to forget the present…” Rodrigo has always been interested in exploring different genres – waltz, tango, chanson, samba, neoclassical, ambient and indie – as if his records were recorded trips. and crossed by your gaze. It is a cinematic record, a journey through songs and diverse environments revised by the modernity of the treatment to which it submits them, born from moments of happy inspiration held by the warm
Source: https://teatromariamatos.pt/event/rodrigo-leao-cinema-project/