Goncalo F Cardoso

After impressions of Unguja and Borneo islands, Discrepants chieftain Goncalo F. Cardoso continues his sonic travelogue on insularity with Impressões de Várias Ilhas.

Literally translated as impressions from various islands, this third tome dwells on recordings and inspirations from three archipelagos of Macaronesia. Soaking in the sounds and recollections from Azores, Cape Verde and Canary Islands these diaristic endeavours spread throughout a number of real environments, from water caves and black stone beaches and lagoons to small harbours and everyday life scenarios, to project them into this not quite imaginary but not quite real memory haze that goes from a deeply personal impression to a resonating one.

Melding raw field recordings with processed ones and synthesized landscapes, Cardoso never falters into sonic tourism, conjuring small-ish takes both vivid and dreamy, infused with a sense of wonder that feels both bewildering, comforting and escapist. The breaking waves of Bufadeiros de São Vicente soothing in their irregular pattern, mingling with the lone echoing tones not completely removed from Black Dices Beaches & Canyons most pensive passages, flow into the underwater ambience and suspended pads of La Cueva Scuba Livre, as reflections of the same sea crashing in on different lands, natures psychogeography. Further on, the queasy warm chord and scraping murmurs of Noite em Rabo de Peixe mirror their nighttime framing while Rãs em Xoxo veers closer to pure musique concrete, crossed by a subdued feeling of unease that lingers in the nostalgia of Cozido da Caldeira Velha, brimming within the haze of a Boards of Canada vignette. Summoning the past lives and future hauntings of its scenery, Salinas de Pedra Lume is like the quiet epic of the album, meandering into the unknown among crackling field recordings, decaying synths and flute-like howls - or is it howl-like flutes? - recurring as glimpses from foregone existences, not necessarily Goncalos own. Maybe ours?

• 01 Os Bufadeiros de Sao Vincente
• 02 La Cueva Scuba Libre
• 03 Cha da Gorreana
• 04 Noite Em Rabo De Peixe
• 05 Pardelas Dueto
• 06 Ras Em Xoxo
• 07 El Chat Gracioso
• 08 Cozido Na Caldeira Velha
• 09 Salinas de Pedra Lume
• 10 Noche En Punta Brava
• 11 A Lagoa Do Combro
• 12 Piedras Humedas en Castro
• 13 Digestao nas Furnas
• 14 Peixe ta Congelado Santo Antao