Bandua

In recent years, Edgar Valente has made a name for himself as a singer with the avant-folk act Criatura. Picking up on Portuguese traditional rhythms and lyrics, the band fosters an idiosyncratic approach to ancient and regional musical forms, stretching and reworking within a framework of jazz freedom and punk attitude. So, even though electronics are not what first pops into mind when we think of Valente’s work, it is not an absolute surprise to find him here partnering with producer Tempura the Purple Boy as Bandua.

The self-titled album is built on their common roots in the region of Beira Baixa in central Portugal. And it is the region’s traditional repertoire that Tempura and Valente reinterpret as the tangent point to their dissimilar sound-worlds. What bursts from this is an original and peculiar duo that often succeeds in continuing what António Variações and João Aguardela’s Megafone achieved while finding a modern output for Portuguese tradition, with Tempura’s low-key use of electronics meeting Valente’s singing, very much inspired by Giacometti and Sardinha’s historical field recordings. This works its charm on tracks like ‘Borboleta Branca’ or ‘Macelada’. But while Bandua comes across as intriguing, hinting at a world of possibilities, it does feel short on boldness, sometimes falling prey to a compromise of overlapping separate languages, playing it a bit too safe.