Alento

The Portuguese accordion quartet Danças Ocultas describe their instrument of choice as a ‘dream machine’. Ever since they got together in 1989, they’ve let their musical imaginations run riot, acknowledging the accordion's history yet always seeking to take it in different directions. Alento celebrates some of their achievements since they made their debut CD in 1996. It explores tunes and dance music throwing up constant surprises, harmonic twists and turns, immaculately phrased within their tight ensemble. And they even explore the heavy breathing of the bellows in the opening ‘Folia’. ‘Sorriso’ is a tune which suits the instruments well, alternating between emotionally dark and sunnier moods, with infectious dance rhythms. ‘Alchimie’ digs deeper into the darkness, although the addition of vocals and piano interrupts the flow of this compilation, whose selling point is the exceptional and dynamically varied playing.

I came away from an accordion concert earlier in the year and overheard a member of the audience saying “the accordion is such a hard instrument to love’’ Evidently they’d never heard Dangas Ocultas.