Customer Reviews

Lisbon - Live

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Just listen to the audience... they are dying to shout, clap and sing and yet they hush (and - quite ironically - tell others to hush) as Teresa's angelic voice and the soothing sound of the group start again. The music is beautifully painful to listen to (whether you understand the lyrics or not). There is a special (bonus!) appearance by the much loved Carlos Paredes, master of Portuguese guitar (highly recommended!) Inspiring and relaxing, this album should take you on a journey to memories you thought you had forgotten... some joyful, others tearful.

This double CD offers live versions of most of the songs on Madredeus' first 2 studio albums, "Os Dias de Madredeus" and "Existir." (Carlos Paredes adds 2 songs from his repertoire, and also sits in on "O Navio.")

The versions on "Os Dias..." (the quintessential Madredeus album) are perfect and cannot be improved on. But this album's live versions of the "Existir" material are interesting. The recording quality here is thinner, the balance isn't perfect, and Teresa Salgueiro's vocals aren't as well miked. But the live audience -- and the hall's acoustics -- add a wonderful energy that's lacking on "Existir."

Madredeus is a unique combination of fado, liturgical music, and traditional European cabaret music. Their "Cuidado" (included here and better recorded on "Existir") is astonishingly beautiful. Madredeus' other live double CD, "O Porto," is also great -- it offers better recording quality, although its instrumentation is simpler (no accordion or cello).

This group do an mixture between classic fado and new age, they used intruments typical how guitar portuguese sound similar to Citar indian, bandoneon and special voice woman that let you plane time. It is a excelent group that mixture ancestral music portuguese and new tecnologies.