Astrus Duo
manuel teles | paulo amendoeira
©Tiago Dantas 2023
Astrus Duo, formed in 2018, is a saxophone and percussion duo composed of Manuel Teles and Paulo Amendoeira.
They have performed in main Portuguese venues such as the Casa da Música in Porto, Grand Auditorium of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, the Portuguese National Library, Ermo do Caos, O’Culto da Ajuda and at festivals such as IndieLisboa and 12x12.
In 2019, they were awarded the Young Musicians Prize in the chamber music category and the following year they recorded Escape, a digital album produced by Hugo Romano Guimarães, dedicated to the music of Marc Mellits. They make available on their digital channels several excerpts from concerts, most of which recorded by by RTP and Antena 2.
In recent years, the duo has established close contact with various composers, such as such as Daniel Bernardes, Tõnu Kõrvits, Lino Guerreiro, Andrea Nicoli, Paulo Jorge Ferreira, João Pedro Oliveira, Telmo Marques, João Quinteiro and Marc Mellits. From these meetings came the need to record the duo's first CD, 'Ascolta!', with music by Portuguese composers, published by MPMP.
With the support of GDA Foundation in 2023, they toured Italy, with a program in which improvisation and electronics play an increasingly important role in the duo's aesthetic. It is with this in mind that Astrus Duo intends to continue its path, working side by side with living composers, encouraging, disseminating and developing new repertoire for the formation.
ASCOLTA !
At first glance, it might seem unusual to bring together the music of all the composers featured on this album, given their admittedly distant compositional aesthetics.
The exercise of discovering common elements and connections between these works can be a difficult task, but it is a reflection of our aesthetic as a chamber group open to looking at different artistic fields.
Ascolta is an exercise in active listening for the audience. Living in a world in which we are increasingly challenged by music that comes to us "without asking permission to enter", this CD tends to counteract this practice, suggesting that listeners dedicate themselves to ascoltare (listening) consciously, without allowing themselves to surrender to the banality of passive listening.
Editorial direction and content review Edward Ayres de Abreu / MPMP
Sound recording (faixas 1-10) and editing (1-5, 7-10) João Dionísio and Lívia Duque / Duktus Sound Studio e MPMP
Sound editing (faixa 6) João Pedro Oliveira
Production Duarte Pereira Martins and Lívia Duque / MPMP
Design and layout ELLEONOR
Publishing 9 Musas, Lda., for MPMP Património Musical Vivo — mpmp.pt