"There is no pure music. Fado itself has influences"

At the beginning of June, the fado singer Lina released the single 'Arde Sem Se Ver', which is part of her new album, 'Terra Mãe'. Now, the month ends with more news. The singer has just announced this new project, released this Friday, June 27th, by Atlantic Curve - Schubert Music Europe.

The album will be presented at FNAC Chiado, at 6:30 pm, on June 27th, at FNAC Colombo, at 5 pm, on the 28th, and at FNAC Norte Shopping, at 5 pm, on the 29th.

The album features nine tracks: 'Arde Sem Se Ver'; 'Não Deixai de Ser Quem Sou'; 'Terra Mãe'; 'Entre o Ser e o Estar'; 'Milagres'; 'Réquiem'; 'A Flor da Romã'; 'Falcão na Corda Bamba'; 'When are they coming'. A work made in collaboration with Irish composer Jules Maxwell (composer and keyboardist of Dead Can Dance), and which follows the album 'Burn', by Lisa Gerrard and Jules Maxwell, released in 2021.

It is not fame that Lina seeks, as she highlighted in a conversation with Notícias ao Minuto , but rather recognition. And, she says, "she is very well received abroad", managing to schedule several shows, as you can see below, and in Portugal she is also starting to make some progress in this direction. "It is not something new. Unfortunately, artists are recognized abroad and only later are they recognized here, this happens a lot", she lamented.

The union of artists was another of the points highlighted, not forgetting to bring to the table the "importance of making connections" between musicians.

"It would be very interesting to do a kind of artistic residency where we could create. It would be spectacular, it was something I would really like to do, even with other fado singers, with other musicians. To create something from scratch, music from scratch, where we could all share ideas and knowledge. It would be great! We have to be a little more united in that sense, it's needed."

And this new album is precisely a collaboration with another artist. Despite the distance that separates them, they were still able to carry out this project together.

During the interview, referring to the new album, the opening track 'Arde Sem Se Ver' stood out, whose lyrics are an adaptation by composer Amélia Muge of the poem 'Amor é fogo que arde sem se ver', by Luís Vaz de Camões. It is worth mentioning that, last year, Lina released 'Fado de Camões', an album dedicated to the lyrics of Luís de Camões.

LINA_ & Jules Maxwell © Lizzi Kew Ross

How did the idea for the song 'Arde Sem Se Ver' come about?

This song was originally called 'Follow the Dove'. What we tried to do was translate it into Portuguese - since it is quite difficult to do a perfect translation from English to Portuguese. Jules Maxwell already had this music and lyrics written by him, but in Portuguese the meaning wouldn't make much sense to us. Amélia Muge decided to adapt it to the poem 'Amor é o Fogo e Arte Sem Se Ver', by Luís de Camões, since that idea had already come from the previous album. I worked on an entire album about Camões' poems and fado.

This very interesting adaptation emerged, which ends up exploring other spaces in the poem itself, giving it other meanings, another intensity, seeking here the feeling of the heartbeat and the emotions that we can feel through this poem - which are a little more sequenced, a little easier to interpret. When there is a repetition, we are more sensitive to this repetition, becoming more dependent on the phrase itself and the feelings themselves, which emerge through this small phrase that is repeated. And it is also a way of continuing to pay homage to our poet and his 500 years. It is the first song on the album and, for me, it made perfect sense, given the fact that I dedicated an album entirely to Camões and fado.

This 'Arde Sem Se Ver' comes after having released the song 'Não Deixai de Ser Quem Sou' in collaboration with Jules Maxwell. But had you worked together before or was this a debut?

Jules Maxwell and Lisa Gerrard made an album called 'Burn' and presented it here in Portugal, through the agency UGURU. I had the opportunity to go to that concert and, at the end, I met both of them. 'Terra Mãe' ends up being a continuation of what Jules had done previously with Lisa Gerrard. He was very interested in traditional Portuguese music.

It is also heavily influenced by the old style of Irish music - these are songs sung without any instrumentation, a cappella, and which are very reminiscent of fado, especially the emotional state of fado. Hence Jules Maxwell's interest in working with me on this project, showing me his songs and adapting them - also using the bases he sent me, creating new lyrics and melodies based on these musical bases. That was the work we did.

Is this 'Mother Earth' worked by both?

Yes, completely. Some songs already existed, while others only had the melodic base. For example, 'Terra Mãe' and 'Réquiem' are my creations. He sent me the bases of the song and I created the melody and the lyrics - in line with the theme that was being created, which was the reflection on the self. In the end, that ends up being a bit of the theme of the album. 'Não Deixai de Ser Quem Sou', 'Milagres', 'Terra Mãe' itself, which goes back to my roots, and I created these lyrics thinking about my parents' village and my childhood. It also has a spiritual state that I feel this album has.

The 'Requiem' is a reflection of this, it was a Latin phrase that I invented, which says 'implet animum lumine solis' (sun illuminates my soul). 'Mother Earth' is a cleansing of bad vibrations and bringing us the energy necessary to be able to live well, or well with ourselves.

'Entre Ser e o Estar' is also another adaptation by Amélia Muge, which ends up being a reflection on the self. And hope, what are we doing here… For example, 'Milagres' is a song that tells us that there are no miracles, we are the ones who have to do things to make them happen. Ultimately, this is the message of this album.

Ultimately, 'Terra Mãe' also seeks out the origins, which is what they wanted to bring together…

Exactly! The origins of both the Irish and Portuguese sides. Not just fado, but all the roots. I'm from Trás-os-Montes and this is very much ingrained in me - what roots are and what it's like to be from a land, what people live in these rural areas, the natural way of life, and even the poverty. They end up being very virgin areas. And this territorial 'virginity', which applies here to this 'Motherland' and to the old style of Irish music - which is virgin, completely without instrumentation, just voice and feeling, melancholy. The word saudade itself also has this aspect in old Irish style music... It's not a fado record, far from it, these are influences.

There is no pure music. Fado itself has influences. I also don't like to label and put songs on shelves. We had a lot of difficulty in figuring out what musical genre we were going to give this album.

There are several artists, including fado singers, who have been creating work influenced by fado, but exploring other 'worlds' together. How do you follow the evolution of fado in Portugal?

I feel that I was very responsible for this new instrumentation, especially the instrumentation in fado, and electronic music. In 2020, I released an album with Raül Refree, which was Amália's traditional fados without the Portuguese guitar, and then I started to see my colleagues using exactly the same instruments, later, in fado.

I feel happy because I feel I played a role in this whole process of fado's evolution. We must always maintain tradition, as it is - guitar, viola and voice. But evolution is important. We end up not forgetting our roots. We must first go and see what it is like in order to be able to transform it.

It's a good thing that there are purists, that there are people reinventing, creating and receiving new influences. That's very important. And I don't think there is any pure music. Fado itself has influences. I also don't like to label and put songs on shelves. We had a lot of difficulty in figuring out what musical genre we were going to give this album.

And nowadays there is a lot of mixing of musical styles…

When we release an album, we have to give it a musical genre. For me, it has been a bit difficult because of this sharing of influences and new sounds, new textures in the music that I have been making.

I don't feel like I'm a pop artist, I don't feel like I'm a mass artist. So it becomes difficult because the big labels are publishing artists who are more pop, more popular.

Speaking of Portugal, how do you follow your career in music? Has it been easier to promote your work since the arrival of platforms or has that brought a different challenge?

It's really important that we have this facility to be able to release music, and even make music at home. In the past, to make music we had to go to a studio and it was complicated. Nowadays, we have all the means to make music. Billie Eilish herself makes an entire album at home.

It is very important to have these means of dissemination, but it is also important not to have only certain publishers. In other words, I, for example, do not have a publisher in Portugal, I had to look for a publisher abroad.

You don't have a publisher here, not by choice, but because you couldn't find that partnership?

It's complicated. I don't feel like I'm a pop artist, I don't feel like I'm an artist for the masses. So it becomes difficult because the big labels are the labels for artists who are more pop, more popular...

We consume the music that is given to us. I have nothing against pop music, but I am a little more into the Ryuichi Sakamoto, Paul Buchanan, Glen Hansard wave.

Do you feel pressure for music to move more towards a pop style, a more 'commercial' genre?

We always end up listening to the same styles, the same rhythms, and there is so much good music that we don't know about. We consume the music that is given to us. If we are given other styles, another musical culture, we realize that there is much better music than what is consumable at the moment, which is very pop [commercial].

I have nothing against pop music, but I'm a little more into Ryuichi Sakamoto, Paul Buchanan, Glen Hansard... I have different musical tastes and I learned a lot from Raül Refree. He opened up new ways for me to experience music and to understand that the music we hear on the radio isn't always the best. So it's good to have access to these platforms where people post their music, and to go, from time to time, to look for other musical styles that we identify with more. That's very important.

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