Events
Concert | Live premiere of the album "Massaiá" Vol. I
The new album "Massaiá" continues the artistic research of INET-md researcher and DeCA lecturer, Helena Caspurro, since the creation and publication of Mulher Avestruz (2003), Colapsopira (2009), and Paluí (2013).
This double album of original songs and texts based on the piano-voice format, stylistic fusion, and improvisation will have its Vol. I premiere at a free concert on December 21st at 9:30 p m. in the CCCI auditorium of the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro (DeCA), along with its digital release on the platforms.
This double album of original songs and texts based on the piano-voice format, stylistic fusion, and improvisation will have its Vol. I premiere at a free concert on December 21st at 9:30 p m. in the CCCI auditorium of the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro (DeCA), along with its digital release on the platforms.
Live performance
Helena Caspurro: voice and piano
José M. Parra a.k.a. Orange Sandalwood: piano in Massaiá
Brendan Hemsworth: improvisation on plates and gongs
Inês Lamela and Pedro Almeida: guest solo voices
Mário Santos: tenor saxophone
Paulo Vaz de Carvalho: guitar improvisation
Video interpretation
Beatriz Capote and Joana Machado Araújo: choir
Ana Morais, Edgar Moutinho, Inês Guedes de Oliveira, Jorge Costa, José Grilo, Marta Lima, Matilde Reigó, Raúl Moutinho, Rui Ferro, Susete Rebelo: choir in ÀParte da Vida
Musical composition, poetry and lyrics
Helena Caspurro (music, lyrics and poetry)
Orange Sandalwood (music by Massaiá)
Joana Caspurro (lyrics and poetry for À Parte da Vida)
Dance and choreography
Julie Caspurro
Videos - script and direction
Carlos Silva
Pedro Carvalho de Almeida
Sound, light and projection
António Veiga
Leonel Soares
Daniel Lopes
João Valentim
Pedro Carvalho de Almeida
Staging and artistic direction
Helena Caspurro
Pedro Carvalho de Almeida
José M. Parra a.k.a. Orange Sandalwood: piano in Massaiá
Brendan Hemsworth: improvisation on plates and gongs
Inês Lamela and Pedro Almeida: guest solo voices
Mário Santos: tenor saxophone
Paulo Vaz de Carvalho: guitar improvisation
Video interpretation
Beatriz Capote and Joana Machado Araújo: choir
Ana Morais, Edgar Moutinho, Inês Guedes de Oliveira, Jorge Costa, José Grilo, Marta Lima, Matilde Reigó, Raúl Moutinho, Rui Ferro, Susete Rebelo: choir in ÀParte da Vida
Musical composition, poetry and lyrics
Helena Caspurro (music, lyrics and poetry)
Orange Sandalwood (music by Massaiá)
Joana Caspurro (lyrics and poetry for À Parte da Vida)
Dance and choreography
Julie Caspurro
Videos - script and direction
Carlos Silva
Pedro Carvalho de Almeida
Sound, light and projection
António Veiga
Leonel Soares
Daniel Lopes
João Valentim
Pedro Carvalho de Almeida
Staging and artistic direction
Helena Caspurro
Pedro Carvalho de Almeida
The edition, supported by INET-md, the Department of Communication and Art (DeCA), the Institute for Research in Design, Media and Culture (ID+) and the Avanca Film Club, which began with the digital edition of the single Madalena, already available, includes two music videos, Massaiá and À Parte da Vida, written and directed by Carlos Silva, based on original drawings by Francisco Providência, Joana Quental, Sónia Teles e Silva, and texts by Joana Caspurro. Unveiled at the event, they embody the visual, plastic and audiovisual dimension of Helena Caspurro's musical and artistic project, co-directed by Pedro Carvalho de Almeida and produced by Brendan Hemsworth. Several musicians, designers and artists collaborate on it, including other DeCA lecturers and researchers.
Massaiá is a neologism resulting from a chimerical play between tones and phonemes, created to murmur, like a melody, the ephemerality of life, its beauty and tragedy. Shaping a theme based on both personal and social reasons, the word is the title of the lyrics chosen to represent the poetic message of the pianist and singer's new musical work. It comes from one of Orange Sandalwood's pianistic and improvised works, published under the same name on The Mirror Inside (2021). This pianist, one of the composers and guests on the album, will perform at the concert, along with Paulo Vaz de Carvalho, Mário Santos and Brendan Hemsworth. Beatriz Capote, Inês Lamela, Joana Machado Araújo and Pedro Almeida, former DeCA students, are other performers collaborating on this 1st volume of Massaiá and concert. It will be a moment of image projection, video and dance, presented and choreographed by Julie Caspurro. António Chagas Rosa is the composer and speaker invited to comment on the work being premiered, which the author dedicates to her sister, Joana.
Massaiá - a musical, artistic and editorial journey
Massaiá, a double album of originals, continues the artistic research of Helena Caspurro, a researcher at Inet-md and lecturer at DeCA, since the creation and publication of Mulher Avestruz (2003), Colapsopira (2009) and Paluí (2013). Her work is characterized by her intention to develop and recreate the song genre in a (mainly) solo format, sung on the piano, and the search for a unique sound, born from the fusion between the two instruments that the pianist and singer simultaneously plays; the integration of musical fusion, namely the vocabulary of "classical"/"erudite" roots and jazz, blues, fado, popular music, pop, bossa nova and even political intervention songs; the study of compositional forms and structures; the reinvention of phonemes, their sonic and polysemic exploration; the poetic-literary imagination of the Portuguese language; and, finally, improvisation, particularly vocal and pianistic improvisation.
Massaiá, a double album of originals, continues the artistic research of Helena Caspurro, a researcher at Inet-md and lecturer at DeCA, since the creation and publication of Mulher Avestruz (2003), Colapsopira (2009) and Paluí (2013). Her work is characterized by her intention to develop and recreate the song genre in a (mainly) solo format, sung on the piano, and the search for a unique sound, born from the fusion between the two instruments that the pianist and singer simultaneously plays; the integration of musical fusion, namely the vocabulary of "classical"/"erudite" roots and jazz, blues, fado, popular music, pop, bossa nova and even political intervention songs; the study of compositional forms and structures; the reinvention of phonemes, their sonic and polysemic exploration; the poetic-literary imagination of the Portuguese language; and, finally, improvisation, particularly vocal and pianistic improvisation.
Massaiá on a transdisciplinary route - music as a visual, plastic and literary work
In continuity with the exploration of (co)creative and transdisciplinary processes germinated in music, developed and realized in collaboration with ID+ and DeCA researcher and lecturer Pedro Carvalho de Almeida, especially since Paluí, within the scope of participatory artistic practices studied and implemented in projects, also in an educational context, in the country (such as Paluí: Viagem por histórias sonoras que a língua portuguesa cantanta, and Paluí, está aqui? Sound stories for inner corners), Massaiá, which is currently being developed and will compile two volumes in CD/Audio/Digital format, also aims to become a visual, plastic, audiovisual and poetic-literary product and experience. It is in this sense that a set of six videos and a book of a contemplative nature, presenting and revealing authentic works by various Portuguese artists and writers, including designers from the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro, are objects to be developed and published over the years 2024-25, together with Vol. 2 of the musical and digital album. In the wake of the multi- and interdisciplinary dialogue that characterizes creative questioning itself, perhaps never so diverse and expressive in art and culture as what is produced in contemporary society, it is hoped that the work as a whole, Massaiá, will make it possible to mirror and consummate forms and paths of co-creative, interpretive, heuristic and transdisciplinary work germinated in music. A desire that ultimately contributes to the realization of the pedagogical project of the Department of Communication and Art itself. Purely aesthetic contemplation, sustained by the construction of senses and meanings beyond those conveyed by verbalized forms of discourse, with an emphasis on looking through listening, the latter arguing for writing, is also, from the point of view of the listener and spectator, another of the purposes of this experience and research.
In continuity with the exploration of (co)creative and transdisciplinary processes germinated in music, developed and realized in collaboration with ID+ and DeCA researcher and lecturer Pedro Carvalho de Almeida, especially since Paluí, within the scope of participatory artistic practices studied and implemented in projects, also in an educational context, in the country (such as Paluí: Viagem por histórias sonoras que a língua portuguesa cantanta, and Paluí, está aqui? Sound stories for inner corners), Massaiá, which is currently being developed and will compile two volumes in CD/Audio/Digital format, also aims to become a visual, plastic, audiovisual and poetic-literary product and experience. It is in this sense that a set of six videos and a book of a contemplative nature, presenting and revealing authentic works by various Portuguese artists and writers, including designers from the Department of Communication and Art at the University of Aveiro, are objects to be developed and published over the years 2024-25, together with Vol. 2 of the musical and digital album. In the wake of the multi- and interdisciplinary dialogue that characterizes creative questioning itself, perhaps never so diverse and expressive in art and culture as what is produced in contemporary society, it is hoped that the work as a whole, Massaiá, will make it possible to mirror and consummate forms and paths of co-creative, interpretive, heuristic and transdisciplinary work germinated in music. A desire that ultimately contributes to the realization of the pedagogical project of the Department of Communication and Art itself. Purely aesthetic contemplation, sustained by the construction of senses and meanings beyond those conveyed by verbalized forms of discourse, with an emphasis on looking through listening, the latter arguing for writing, is also, from the point of view of the listener and spectator, another of the purposes of this experience and research.
Painters, sculptors, designers, visual artists, photographers and writers, alongside musicians and instrumentalists, make up the cast of invited authors and artists who will embody the visual, poetic and musical narrative of Massaiá, under the direction and co-direction of the researcher and Pedro Carvalho de Almeida. Some of these works will be projected and exhibited at this launch concert.
Artists participating in the artistic and editorial project
Design and visual arts
Álvaro Sousa, Cláudia Albino, Helena Barbosa, Inês Guedes de Oliveira, Fátima Pombo, Francisco Providência, Joana Quental, Olinda Martins and Rui Costa
Musicians and Performers (teachers; students and former students)
Joaquim Branco, Paulo Vaz de Carvalho, Beatriz Capote, Fausto Pizzol, Joana Machado Araújo, Pedro Almeida and Valentina Idin
Other artists
Eduarda Ferreira, Francisco Badilla, Isaque Pinheiro, Isabel Calado, João Baeta, José Emídio, Manuel Caspurro, Marta Lima, Nuno Higino, Paulo Hernâni, Rui Ferro, Sónia Teles e Silva
Other musicians and performers
António Aguiar, Arnaldo Fonseca, Brendan Hemsworth, Helena Rodrigues, José M. Parra a.k.a. Orange Sandalwood, Inês Silva, Mário Santos, Pedro Lima Pereira, Sara Rodrigues, Tiago M. Soares and Vozes da Rádio
Design and visual arts
Álvaro Sousa, Cláudia Albino, Helena Barbosa, Inês Guedes de Oliveira, Fátima Pombo, Francisco Providência, Joana Quental, Olinda Martins and Rui Costa
Musicians and Performers (teachers; students and former students)
Joaquim Branco, Paulo Vaz de Carvalho, Beatriz Capote, Fausto Pizzol, Joana Machado Araújo, Pedro Almeida and Valentina Idin
Other artists
Eduarda Ferreira, Francisco Badilla, Isaque Pinheiro, Isabel Calado, João Baeta, José Emídio, Manuel Caspurro, Marta Lima, Nuno Higino, Paulo Hernâni, Rui Ferro, Sónia Teles e Silva
Other musicians and performers
António Aguiar, Arnaldo Fonseca, Brendan Hemsworth, Helena Rodrigues, José M. Parra a.k.a. Orange Sandalwood, Inês Silva, Mário Santos, Pedro Lima Pereira, Sara Rodrigues, Tiago M. Soares and Vozes da Rádio
