Founded in 1978, conjunto Bulimundo is perhaps the most important funaná band today. Among the several things which they have given Cape Verde’s musical history, let’s stand by the unimpeachable role they played in making the genre democratic. It was they that brought it to the city centre, removing it from the submissive role to which the colonial authorities had relegated it. In 1980, they take it even further, paving the way for funaná’s diaspora with records such as Djan Branku Dja and Bulimundo, which immortalize the electrified version of that constant game between diatonic accordion and “ferro-gaita”. They’ve been on hiatus for ten years, but luckily they´re back to the stage and (rumour has it) they’re preparing new things for release soon. So, an institution, this band which makes it’s Azorean début.

Saxophone player and composer, Colin Stetson has a place of prominence in the contemporary music scene. Born and raised in Ann Arbor, he spent a decade between San Francisco and Brooklyn, working live and in the studio with a long list of essential artists. From Tom Waits to TV on the Radio, from Arcade Fire to Lou Reed, from Bon Iver to Feist, David Byrne or The National. Master of an absolutely singular technique, Colin has been building a unique voice as a solo artist, allying technique to unquestionable abilities as a composer. So it’s no wonder that we see him travel with equal dexterity in the avant-garde jazz tradition of musicians such as Evan Parker or Mats Gustafsson, or the contemporary electronic noise/drone/minimalist music done by names like Tim Hecker and Ben Frost (both of whom have mixed some of his recordings). He returns to Portugal with All This I Do For Glory, his most recent record under his own name, for gigs in the Azores and in Lisbon (at ZDB).

On their fourth studio record, Moon Duo embark on a cosmic voyage through their darker and shiny sounds, exploring new textures and sonic landscapes which reflect on the duality between light and darkness, visible in the passing of the seasons and the variations from day to night and night to day. Through the logic of Yin and Yang – with the first volume associated to a more feminine side and darkness, and the second to the masculine side, Occult Architecture paves the way for a change in perspective in the band’s sound, being evidence of the collective’s constant willingness in challenging the limits of our mind.

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Singer and multi-instrumentalist, Jacco Gardner garnered, with only two records, a position in the world of contemporary psychedelia. Cabinet of Curiosities and Hypnophobia showed us that universe of futuristic strangeness, where baroque details, fairy tales and vintage passions filled pop music. That might have been why Pitchfork nicknamed him “studio wizard” and why Portugal and the world fell in love with what he was doing. He came here often, until he settled for good, in Lisbon, where he found a new life, immersed in cinema, literature and philosophy. It is within that universe that Somnium, his first record without vocals, was born, which again mirrors the way in which he appropriates and transcends his traveling experiences.

Lafawndah’s path is still recent. Half Iranian, half Egyptian, Yasmine Dubois has been attracting attention worldwide by the futuristic way in which she approaches pop and electronic. They call it ritual dance music, with influences by unmistakable voices such as Nina Simone, Grace Jones, Missy Elliott or Kate Bush, in this instance, inseparable allies of the heritage of Middle Eastern singing and the queens of dance floors and disco. Tan, her second EP, was released with the quality of the Warp imprint, and drinks in all the points of which her past is made: from South American cumbia to the salsa of Central America or Caribbean zouk.

It’s safe to say that part of what makes Grails the great band that they are is their ability to, on each record, experiment more ideas and take more risks than most bands will in their entire careers. They’ve stubbornly fought against the clichés of instrumental music, giving it new borders, and leaving behind a set of albums which condense the heritage of all those who came before them, mixing the most diverse styles under the umbrella of musical freedom.

“Misbehaved music”, that is how Teto Preto, a band born in the bosom of the Mamba Negra party, which reinvented the electronic scene in São Paulo, call what they do. In Pedra Pedra, the second tome in their inclusive, feminist and hedonist universe of a collective which was a community before it was a band, they once again experiment around the admitted influences of Brazilian disco music of the 70’s, jazz, techno and house and everything else that makes the body vibrate. They add the right touch of contemporary dance, performance and the assertively provocative lyrics to, with all that, secure a place in the fight for survival of avant-garde electronic culture in Brazil.

It’s funny to think that this concert could never have happened. The reason is that the recording process for I Need to Start a Garden, Haley Heynderickx’s début album, was anything but calm. Among studio issues, technical difficulties and financial setbacks, a certain tenacity was necessary to bring it into the light of day. As such, its name is not at all a coincidence, and serves to seek a little calm among the waves of uncertainty and convulsion, the same waves which set the confessional tone in her music. In Haley’s garden there are paths among the solitude, there is the confession of one who possesses an unshakeable certainty regarding her own doubts, there is 60’s and 70’s folk, jazz and everything else that makes it a compulsory stop. One of the year’s records for some of the most relevant global publications, this one she is débuting in a sole date in the Azores.

In Fumaça Preta elements of tropicalism, fuzz funk, concrete music, acid house and  electronic are found. Africa and Brazil, Northern Europe and the latin world are joined. They came about almost by chance when Alex Figueira gathered a group of friends in his tiny analogue studio in Amsterdam. From that session A Bruxa would be born, the first 45 rpms which already made clear the bands willingness to bring down all musical barriers. With two long players on the incomparable label Soundway, the world in which they move is still inexplicable and the territory they trail is unpredictable, like a type of voodoo which ties the lines between tradition, genre, composition and improvisation.

It’s become clear that Lula Pena is an increasingly shared treasure among all those whose heart speaks Portuguese. From Phados to Archivo Pittoresco, we’ve been following the trajectory that the guitarist and songwriter is taking towards the global song. Without borders (we remind you that she sings with equal ease in Portuguese, French, English, Spanish, Greek or Italian), the music she makes brings the word front and centre, her won or that of poets such as Manos Hadjidakis, Violeta Parra and Belga Scutenaire, to show us perfumes, accents, disquiet and hopes which make up the latin soul.

We met them as Happy Meals, a name which was a sort of satire to the consumerism that surrounded them, but it might be under the name Free Love that Suzanne Roden and Lewis Cook can better ensconce their utopian identity. After traversing Europe, opening for names such as Liars or Flaming Lips, they come to the Azores to prove that the reason why fame awards them the title of one of the most sensual and interesting new bands of 2018.

We bow to João Peste and his Pop Dell’Arte. With a career spanning more than 30 years, they continue to feed the imaginary world with music that means to be at the avant-garde, and the enemy of formalism. With a renewed lineup, after Ricardo Martins joining on the drums, Pop Dell’Arte have been back on the road, taking with them the tracks which form the steps of their (now long) career. Contra Mundum, the most recent original record, still serves as nourishment for the concerts and the fans, used to each serving by the collective lasting a long time, such is the impact that they make on the normality of the pop world.

Maria Beraldo wages open wars against conservatism. Clarinete and bass clarinet player for Arrigo Barnabé’s band, and a member of the historical Quartabê and Bolerinho, Maria made her name, in Cavala, as a solo composer. The record, clearly radio friendly, is the pains and delights felt by the singer and songwriter, in a set of songs of lesbian affirmation which update the Brazilian repertory and again bring into the media’s close attention the need to rethink the heteronormativity of bodies and sexuality.

The sixth long player by Cave is called Allways. Rhythmic tremors, electric airs, krautrock and the energy of vivaciousness mark the return of the psychedelic quintet from Chicago that, in the last few years, have toured the world and have gone to four continents. Cave have a pulse, forever. The evidence of this is a record that exudes a whiff of Miles Davis as well as punk, or takes its inspiration from Indian and exotic music. We can hear space, groove and rock, and we fly together. So, Cave, Allways.

In the Summer of 2017, Kees Berkers and Yves Lennertz started to write and record songs at a ballet school in the remote village of Plateau de Doenrade. Avid record collectors, Yin Yin transport into his music the variety of genres to be found on their record shelves. Starting from southern Asian music form the 60s and 70s, they have built a multilingual dialogue with touches of world music, funk and electronic. Pingpxng, their début tape cassette, symbolizes just that, explaining in detail how two apparently opposed forces can act in a complementary fashion.

The Sunflowers are, in their own words, a rock band which plays rock for people who like rock music and rock concerts. If you want to know more about them, they say, «google it», and there you’ll find details about, in our words, one of the more interesting and hyperactive Portuguese duos.

ZA! are a Catalan duo, and they’re all that can fit in all musical groups, from jazz to electronic music, to rock, stopping at all frequency emission stations, in a mix which they call “post-world music”, where anything that can be done by the human species can fit. This project made up of Papadupau and Spazzfrica Ehd count more than ten years in the mixing of genres and in the meeting with other artists, they have more than five hundred live concerts in five continents and six records that explain in detail the multiple possibilities of polyrhythm. Their most recent Pachinko Plex does it without becoming overly analytical, summing up global influences and making technique the guiding line amidst the chaos that only they know how to construct. Devoted to that impossible to contain exploration, ZA! returns to Tremor, still with “loloism” filling their chests with the breath to go on endless travels among scales, harmonies and inscrutable aromas.

João Pais Filipe has had a busy year. From the release as a duo with Paisiel to his own record, the collaboration with HHY & The Macumbas or Black Bombaim, the percussionist has had little time to stop. And so the challenge for this, which many cal a beautiful love story, came form his mother- label: Lovers & Lollypops. The idea was just to see a concert by Tomaga, Valentina Magaletti’s band, but the chemistry solidified by Porto’s bohemian nightlife, was immediate. Form it was forged The Golden Path, recorded released under the CZN moniker. Nocturnal, visceral, erratic, immersive, this golden path through which they both guide us, replaces music and its historic role at the centre of human spirituality: uniting instinct with discipline, reality with dream, finite and eternal.

Working in the intersection between writing, music, performance and visual arts, Odete makes clear which universe she moves in: clearly autobiographical, challenging the limits between personal and political. A sensorial theory for a tired childhood, made of silences, failures ad breakdowns, built from a narrative of transition and her own experience as a trans woman. Her sets are frequently inhabited by homemade recordings of destruction and funerals, and the beats of an entire history of queer music.

Chupame El Dedo are Eblis Álvarez (Meridian Brothers) and Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo, Los Pirañas, Ondatrópica) together per the challenge by Detlef Diederichsen (director of Berlin summer festival Evil Music). The commission was simple: to create a death metal band with influences in tropical music. From here it’s easy to imagine what we’ll find in their début eponymous record: all the tropes of grindcore, speed and black metal in a marriage (or collision) with salsa, rumba, currulao and reggaeton. Tropical madness and artistic displacement promised, you can order a mojito for the headbanging in the Azores now.

Whether solo, as Lone Taxidermist, or in collaborations with names such as Jenny Hval or Gazelle Twin, the universe of expression of Nathalie Sharp, vocalist, performer and make-up artist, is defined by the ability of triggering sensorial experiences which throw the audience in the centre of her live shows. After being in Tremor, in the 2018 edition, to present Trifle, we invited her to create a sound installation adapted to one of the Island of São Miguel’s trails. She gave us back a Project which explores the sound landscape of a journey to Paradise: “A warning of human carnal condescendence, which serves as an alarm for the dangers of life’s tensions, to an invocation of final sexual joy. The human figures delight themselves in an innocent and selfish happiness, as they begin a wide array of activities and seem to enjoy the sensual pleasures, in an apparent union with nature.”

Lieven Martens (ex-Dolphins Into The Future) spent several stints in the Azores but has never played there. Throughout the years, he collected countless sound samples in the field, with which he would release records such as Canto Arquipélago, a sound poem about the diversity in the Azores. By invitation of Tremor, Lieven returns to Azores for an artistic residency to recreate the work The Cow Herder, a sonata which paints the sonic portrait of the life of a cow herder in the Corvo island. It will be a double presentation, in a room, and in an outdoor place in the island, to be revealed, as usual, during the festival, and will be supplemented by videos and texts made by him.

The ondamarela collective hosts, develops and implements collaborative artistic projects. Its interest is the relationship between a specific space, a group of people in that space and an artistic gesture built on sharing. They have worked with communities in Bragança, Ílhavo, Guimarães (European Capital of Culture 2012), La Valleta (European Capital of Culture 2018), Aldeias Históricas de Portugal, among many other projects.

Since its third edition that Tremor works with the Escola de Música de Rabo de Peixe (EMRP) [Rabo de Peixe Music School], facilitating the meeting of this project of 70 jazz students with new artists, and the access to unique experiences, techniques and repertoires. EMRP aims to contribute, through education and music, to the development of children and youngsters who hail from this underprivileged community of the island. A structure that is based at the Cine-teatro Miramar, this is a social, artistic and community project which in 2016 presented work made in partnership with ZA!; in 2017 opened the festival with an exclusive performance; and in 2018 presented a collaboration with O Gringo Sou EU.

The Associação de Surdos da Ilha de São Miguel (ASISM) [São Miguel Association of the Deaf] has as its mission to develop and create structures for the support of deaf citizens, assuring their autonomy, individuality, rights, and response to their needs, acting in an integrated form regarding factors of social exclusion, encouraging the exercise of active citizenship. It promotes cultural, recreational and artistic activities, it intervenes in the media to raise public awareness regarding the problematic of deafness in all social avenues.

Trans Van Santos is Mark Matos, American of Azorean descent (his mother was born in the Island of Santa Maria, and his father on the Island of São Jorge). As a man, he became a nomad, a poet, composer, journeyman artist, and is today viewed as a leading figure in the landscape of the most underground independent music made in the USA. Throughout almost two decades, with more than tem records released and a reputation for live concerts which are highly memorable, he has come forth as a new thing, aggregating the constellation which has recently marked the San Francisco music universe. He has played with members of Dead Meadow, Afrofunk, Calexico or The Blank Tapes and is credited as one of the inventors of “Western Exotica”.

Co-founder and keyboardist for Moon Duo, artist in constant motion, Sanae Yamada finds in Vive la Void, her solo Project, the space to reflect upon the life of a musician with no permanent base. It’s in this game between memory and meditation where we find her self-titled début album, an agglomeration of musical spaces which point to mind expanding states and the search for a cosmic state of existence. Dense and meticulously designed atmospheres which live off an almost ethereal mix of psych-rock and minimal-wave, boosted by the discreet vocal melodies by Yamada and the depth of her lyrics.

The despensas are the traditional dances of Rabo de Peixe. Each group is formed by 15 dancers and five musicians. The dancers perform and play castanets, accompanied by guitars and accordions. The Despensas de Rabo de Peixe come from the Spanish settling in the north of the island. Tradition of farmers and fishermen, which unites Rabo de Peixe – land and sea – in a circuit of home visits, in the celebrations of the Holy Spirit.

Instytut B61 is a Polish artistic and scientific collective dedicated to the creation of multimedia shows, films and digital projects that combine contemporary art and science. In Tremor, they join the musicians of the Laxmi Bomb, and Azorean artists to present an immersive experience. The proposal promises a journey into outer space to follow the life cycle of stars. The Instytut B61 – Interstellar SUGAR Center of Ponta Delgada will be installed in a mystery place, to be revealed to the participants a few hours before the beginning of the adventure. The performance will be perfomed during 9 sessions. Limited capacity and participation upon registration. Registration opens on April 5 at 2 PM in the "News" section (www.tremor-pdl.com). [REGISTRATION CLOSED]

Rubén Monfort is from Valencia, Spain. He has a degree in audio-visual communication, cinema and photography. He has collaborated with the International Business School of São Paulo, Canal 180, Tremor Festival, Pico do Refúgio – Casas de Campo, Jornal Açoriano Oriental, and since 2015 he has been co-director of the Agenda Cultural Yuzin Azores. As a photojournalist, his work has been published in several major media in Portugal and abroad.

There is no name in national music that can, in such an exemplary manner, sum up the identities of the city of Porto’s identities. Whether solo as David Bruno, a kind of romantic cheesy singer in love with the city of Gaia, or side by side with Logos in the multiple incarnations of Corona, the lyrical and creative ability with which he sings the daily tackiness which surrounds us is undeniable. His first and only record, O Último Tango em Mafamude, dances somewhere between the intersection of Madlib and Marante, in a spiral of irony and sarcasm fed by samples from several universes, hip hop beats and kitsch imagery.

Balada Brassado is the best-known farmer-rapper in Arrebentão and the third most sensual musician to perform in Wellington boots on YouTube. A self-taught producer – of milking calves, that is – his lyrics talk of deep and divisive subjects in the Azorean reality, such as the fashion of carrying JBL speakers around one’s neck, cars with spoilers sprinting down the lane and dogs tied to lighting posts. Balada Brassado is a kind of vigilante without a cape; and also without vocal technique, musical knowledge or any natural talent. His grasp of Portuguese is kind of tenuous, but “da man” is true to himself and screams at anything which irks him.

Pedro Lucas was born on the island of Faial, in the Azores, in 1985, and is part of a generation of young musicians from Portugal who got involved in the revitalization of traditional music. At the start, through O Experimentar Na M’Incomoda, and since 2014, beside Carlos Medeiros, in what would be the journey through the musical-literary trilogy of Medeiros/Lucas. He was in charge of the opening show for the Festival Silêncio, in 2017, setting to music and adapting the text “Os velhos Também Querem Viver”, by Gonçalo M. Tavares, and now launches again, solo, with Pedro Lucas where he explores more classical compositions with improvisation on the guitar, and with the Anglo-Saxon alter ego Phillip Rub. Throughout his trajectory he has collaborated with musicians form different areas, among which Zeca Medeiros, Selma Uamusse, Mitó Mendes (A Naifa, Señoritas), Carlão, Tó Trips, Filho da Mãe, Carlos Barretto. João Hasselberg or Carlos Guerreiro (Gaiteiros de Lisboa).

Azorean lo-fi pop Project which explores the mystical capital of being an islander, in the balancing act between belonging to the wide open sea and the folly of the waves.

Azorean pianist, Cristóvão Ferreira began his musical journey at 9 years old, studying the cello and the piano at the Conservatório Regional de Ponta Delgada. Early on, he reveals a special inclination towards the technology associated with music, and in composition he found the space where he can best apply his abilities. In 2012, he enters the Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espectáculo do Porto, in the degree of Music, Production track. Currently, alongside teaching, he has dedicated himself to playing the piano and sound engineering.

Formed by Daniel García and Mladen Kurajica, Tupperwear are one of the electronic duos which have been devoting to exploring new paths in electronic music, with one foot in the rhythms of South America and direct influences in IDM and drone. Throughout their 15 years of existence, they have released three long players and several EPs which have spread, over the world, their particular take on the genre, connecting it to the exploration of the senses through the layering of textures, noise and polyrhythm.

Diogo Lima is an editor and director born in São Miguel, in 1993. Based in Lisbon, he lives between editing for advertising and work done under his own name, in narrative formats of short size such as documentaries (PDL-LIS, AZ-RAP: Filhos do Vento), music videos or other digital content.

Luís Branco, rapper hailing from the Southern coast of the green Island, has been releasing, since 2016, forty tracks on YouTube. Songs with deep roots boom bap, which record the path of an artist with a deep connection not only to his land but to a life which is all but simple. With a set of collaborators which he calls La Familia (a highlight is Mellow, fellow rapper and director of several of his music videos) he has been to some of the island’s stages, making his début at Tremor in 2019.

It’s beginning to be a compulsory thing, to count on La Flama Blanca to close the story of each Tremor. The creator of Baile Tropicante, who has recently become a radio DJ, has left a trail of memorable DJ sets. A sweaty shirt discovering the best (danceable) secrets from Latin America, he has an impressive ability to transform any movement on the dance floor into hugs. At Tremor, he will be accompanied, on the guitar, by ZÉFYRE, a leading figure form the rock camp, who comes form Barcelos.

Rafael Carvalho is the singularity of viola da terra. The guitar of tow hearts, sister to the braguesa, the guitar of Azores par excellence. A one-man event, he is one of the most talented Azorean musicians of our time. Teacher, musical director, cultural producer, composer and writer, he is the main living flag-bearer for the instrument. He has played on the nine islands of the Azores, nationally and internationally, with the most diverse formations. Origens is his first and moving calling card, which was followed by Paralelo 38, in 2014, and Relheiras, in 2017.

There is a pleasure in living in (in)definition, of being ashore and at sea, of tasting the sweet and sour, of being in twilight. That is where FLiP lives, and that is how he returns to records, flipping it over. The path in music is made by records and by machines, mechanisms to pour out what has been heard, seen and felt. It was made more than 20 years ago, with a beautiful view among the trails, but the best is that it goes on today, more, different, and redefining itself.

There is no way to anticipate where we’ll stop, regarding this encounter. On one side we have the man who, after all is said and done, has been one of the main engines in the cultural Lisbon we fid today (what he did at Filho Único, Príncipe Discos or in Gala Drop), on the other, the man about whom it’s easy to hear: DJ Fitz know more about music than you. A composition of energy fed by music from several hemispheres, which is said to create a wave of happiness that extends into the distance.

To say that NEX’s love for music was born while he was working at a canned food factory seems like a joke, but the truth is that radio, a prime space for the spreading of music from different universes, has things like this. From radio to instruments, he bought a violimba, and since then has travelled around the world in search of change and inspiration. He says he’s a personal friend of Bonga, but at this Tremor he’s joining up with other friends. Tape, a Lisbon native exiled in São Miguel since the start of the 21st century, has been one of the main agitators of the clubbing scene on the green Island, tireless “annoyer” of minds stuck in the past, has managed to relevantly elevate the BPMs of those who are sentimental and brave Azorean hearts. He completes the trio with Zuga 73, his friend the selector who helps out on the journey which promises to begin in the remote Mississippi and flow onto Pluto.

Macaronesian DJ Milhafre hails from Pico do Fogo, Island of São Miguel, Azores, but with an open bridge to its namesake Pico do Fogo, Island of Fogo, Cape Vert. In his luggage he brings coladeira and funaná which set fire to the dance floor and move you to dance, frantic, relaxed and uninhibited. The dance floor at 100 degrees, divided by the wide horizons of DJ Fellini, a selector with tentacles playing every sonic latitude capable of making the dance floor move.

By invitation of Tremor Festival, the ondamarela collective heads an artistic project of musical nature, which explores the relationship of the participants with sound and space, in a meeting between 20 participants of the Associação de Surdos da Ilha de São Miguel (ASISM) [São Miguel Association of the Deaf], several guest musicians and students of the Escola de Música de Rabo de Peixe [Rabo de Peixe Music School], a pioneering jazz school project. This work is the result of a unique and unrepeatable performance, a reflection of the collaborative construction and the intersection of knowledge and experience. The performance also brings on stage the themes of relationship and inclusion, and will be on the festival’s opening programme.

Despensas are the dances in Rabo de Peixe. Each group is formed by 15 dancers and five musicians. The dancers dance and play castanets, accompanied by guitars and accordions. This tradition comes from the Spanish settlement in the north of the Island. A tradition of farmers and fishermen, Despensas join Rabo de Peixe (land and sea) in a circuit of home visits, in the celebrations of the Holy Spirit. At Tremor 2019, Spanish photographer Rubén Monfort creates a photographic exhibition of this tradition, to which is joined a performance of groups of Despensas from Rabo de Peixe and the music of Spanish project ZA!. The idea is to present a multidisciplinary show at the Home of the Holy Spirit, giving relevance to these dances which are still unknown on the Island and involve the local population in their creation.

dB is a producer from Vila Nova de Gaia. Member of Conjunto Corona, in 2018, he presented under his own name O Último Tango em Mafamude: a multimedia work of humour and video, and audio samples, with visual references from Portugal of the 80s and 90s, creting an ode to Gaia. Balada Brassado is Azorean and reinvents traditions, lessons and issues of Azorean identity and being Azorean with humour, through videos, songs, texts and artistic objects. Together the artist arm wrestle, looking at the place where they are and at the references they share. It’s Vila Nova de Gaia versus Ponta Delgada, and anything can come from this encounter.

WE SEA are an Azorean independent lo-fi pop Project which explores the mystic capital of being an islander. Pedro Lucas is a producer, composer and guitarist, which has distinguished himself in projects such O Experimentar and Medeiros/Lucas. The artists are invited for a meeting for sharing references from the Azores to think about new themes and compositions form the collaboration.

Cristóvão Ferreira is Azorean. Musician, pianist, and sound explorer. He takes on projects under his own name, also taking part in several jazz and philharmonic ensembles. He is also a member of bands such as 3rd Method. Tupperwear are a duo of electronic and ethno-futuristic, tropical organic music, with a tendency for sonic experimentation. In this Macaronesian residency, the meeting is a clash and leads to development of a meeting point made of tension, where two different ways of looking at and making music come together, which seek the other’s complementarity.

Diogo Lima is one of the most Creative voices in cinema and audiovisual in the Azores. He makes films, music videos, adverts, theatre shows, and communication projects. Author of the multi award-winning film PDL-LX, director of the documentary AZ-Rap: Filhos do Vento, about hip-hop made in Azores, and during the first five years of Tremor, he was the on-call seismographer. Luís Branco, aka LBC, is one of the most prolific artists of Azorean rap. He is an MC and producer. He created the La Familia crew to release his music, as well as that of several Azorean artists. Lima and LBC join up to create new tracks, an audiovisual show and the invitation to a drummer to overtake the formal limits of hip-hop in the MC and DJ relationship, and make it happen as: “The LBC Live Experience All-Star Show of The Century”.

In 2018, Rafael Carvalho met FLiP for a first approach between viola da terra and electronic. In 2019, the residency of Rafael Carvalho and FLiP is a second step in this prolific encounter, looking to taking the creation of a piece further, through tools which rarely have met: the Viola da Terra bringing tradition; and the electronic sound machines representing contemporary sounds. The new creation, founded on the old and the current, never compromising either of these spaces, is the essence of the residency of Rafael Carvalho and FLiP amplified by invited musicians: Simão Pedro, Carolina Furtado, and Guilherme Rodrigues.

Lieven Martens is a Belgian sound artist, recognised by this work as Dolphins into the Future. In 2013, he recorded Canto Arquipélago in the Azores, an album of capture and manipulation of sound and field recordings, which became the object of a cult following in the world of sound exploration. At Tremor 2019, Martens presents The Cow Herder, a sonata in homage to a cow shepherd on the Island of Corvo. In an artistic residency, he works the same piece for two moments of presentation, on one hand he explores the electronic dimension, on the other acoustic music, working with a brass ensemble.

Renato Cruz Santos and Duarte Ferreira use photography and sound to explore the Island. They search the landscape for meaning and individual senses which extend to nature, people and locations. From there they go off to research the impact of music, performance and places transformed into stages to create an installation and multi-sensorial exhibition which proposes a vision of the island altered by sound and visual stimulate. After a first stage of work in 2018, Santos and Ferreira return to São Miguel to continue that research and present the work in the form of a sound and visual installation.

About Sístole:

The magnitude of the alchemy of fire and air and the earth, has throughout time washing the surface, cooling with the air and congealing until it became stone. This is the origin of the island, of this landscape of disparity. Geo-morphologically, it’s filled with cavities that we question. Are they caves? Or passages?

In these unlit crevices, the eyes are useless and we are guided by the tone, through trails with no guarantee of a passage or end. This constant reverberation reveals a subsoil, recalling the aesthetics of chaos, an underground prison “as far under Hades as earth is under the sky”, which can lead us to spaces so close to the heart of the Island where, at any time, they pump other colours, lava and blood.

The imminence of the lava’s flow and the matter spewed, which has once ravaged the landscape with darkness, eclipsing it from the sun, moulding it and sculpting it, opposes the idyllic and prevailing notion of primitive nature, of the green. There are other colours, other textures, other limits, which circulate through arterial tunnels in a constant mutation which man has tried to explore, since he arrived here, beyond that which is visible.

Situated at the eastern seafront of the city of Ponta Delgada, in the charming parish of Santa Clara, Arco 8 is a truly independent artistic lab, open to all forms of artistic expression. Many memorable and unprecedented cultural events have taken place at this venue, making it a mythical place amongst local and international young and eminent artists. Artistic freedom is the only rule guiding its programming that has, throughout the years, actively contributed to the development of a genuinely cosmopolitan culture in the capital city of the archipelago of the Azores.

Arquipélago – Centro de Artes Contemporâneas, located in the city of Ribeira Grande, is a transdisciplinary art center that hosts projects of creation, production and exhibition of contemporary arts. Located in the middle of the Atlantic, Arquipélago aims to promote and consolidate the local artistic and cultural identity by opening it to, and integrating it into, the global cultural dynamics of the contemporary art world, providing an exchange of persons, events and cultures.

The programming of Arquipélago is manifested through a diversity of activities that cross the different contemporary artistic languages – visual arts, performing arts, music, architecture, design, illustration, literature and fashion. Besides, the Art Center presents annual exhibitions, individual and collective, inviting to inhabit this space regional, national and international artists, hosts numerous artistic residencies and promotes activities of the educational service.

The Ateneu Comercial de Ponta Delgada is a recreational and cultural association founded 112 years ago by the entrepreneurs and merchants of Ponta Delgada. This venue was used as a place for meetings, gatherings and indoor leisure activities. Today, it maintains the same essence but with an expanded reach to the whole society of Ponta Delgada, organizing tournaments of indoor games, dance classes, conferences and exhibitions.

The Auditório Luís de Camões was constructed, in the seventies, in the Cloister of the former Convent de Graça, where the Public Library and Regional Archive of Ponta Delgada used to be. When the Conservatório Regional in Ponta Delgada moved to the building that was occupied by the Public Library, in 2004, the Auditório Luís de Camões became part of this music school. Apart from regular lessons, concerts and other artistic activities take place in this auditorium.

The feast in praise of the Divine Holy Spirit are a collective and charitable tradition, of Franciscan inspiration, lived in an intense manner in the entire archipelago of the Azores, but with differences from island to island, and even between parishes. It is in this context that the Benefit Feast of Rabo de Peixe are included, a cult with unique specificities within the context of all the celebrations of the Divine Holy Spirit in the Azores.

The first writings go back to 1867, when a group of friends got organized to support and help with the creation of the Benefit Feast. In 1963, the Benefit Feast Party Commission was founded, with the goal of promoting it. In 2003, the Benefit Feast Party Promoting Brotherhood Association, a non profit, was formed, with the intent of promoting and boosting the traditional Benefit Feast, as well as different events with a social and cultural bent.

In 2008, the opened their headquarters, and in 2014, the Home of the Divine Holy Spirit of the Brotherhood of the Benefit Feast. For the building of this home, there were contributions from the Brotherhood, the local population the emigrants in the diaspora and governmental bodies. This space has a permanent exhibit, from the first Flag of the Benefit Feast, as well as the spoils from the different stages of the Feast and the major-domos. The Home of the Divine Holy spirit of the Brotherhood of the Benefit Feast is also the space where a vast majority of the feast occurs, such as for example the Supper of Creators, the making of hampers among other activities.

The Home of the Divine Holy Spirit of the Brotherhood of the Benefit Feast closes its collective tradition, dignifies the Holy Spirit, associating with it the celebration of the fertility of the land and the exaltation of brotherhood, made real through sharing.

The Coliseu Micaelense, which opened its doors in 1917, was the result of a project headed by architect António Sanches Ayla. It became a cultural landmark in the Azores and, at the time, was baptised as Coliseu Avenida. The exceptional versatility of the largest show house in the archipelago is, above all, an undeniable asset for the region, especially when it comes to culture and tourism. In 1950, it was acquired by the Companhia de Navegação Carregadores Açorianos (Shipping Company), led by Francisco Luís Tavares, and its name was changed to Coliseu Micaelense.

After the 80s, its activity was progressively phased out but it continued to host the traditional Carnival Balls – tradition that began in 1921 – until it was completely shut down due to the considerable state of decay of its facilities. Finally, in 2002, the Ponta Delgada City Council acquired the Coliseu Micaelense and began the biggest renovation the building ever had in its 90 years of existence.

In 2005, the Coliseu Micaelense reopened its doors to the world of show business. With a diverse range of events planned to meet everyone’s taste and expectation, the Coliseu Micaelense is the perfect host for the Ponta Delgada parish and for the island of São Miguel. Its beauty, caracter and historic energy felt throughout the halls make this hundred-year-old building a living landmark of the Azores.

A pioneer in the city of Ponta Delgada, Estúdio 13 is a multidisciplinary space dedicated to the creative industries, which has as its goal to privilege creation, teaching and presentation of several artistic and cultural endeavours. In a moment when the regional territory is going through a real revitalisation and strengthening of cultural creation principles connected to contemporary arts, the protection of content that creates a locally sourced and outwardly attractive culture. At the genesis of this project is the art of creation, divided fundamentally into three different areas: Audiovisual production; Performing Arts School; and Black box (space for presentations).

Galeria Brui is an image laboratory that proposes a selection of handmade papers, artist editions and unusual objects. Since 2018, the Brui gallery/workshop has been working in a programme of technical support and exhibition production, where local and European artists meet. Designed as a free space for artistic experimentation and research, the programme is geared towards emerging, confirmed or amateur artists.

In this garage, where once one could feel the steel workers working hard, rests nowadays the vehicles that offers mobility for all of those that desires to embrace adventure along the Island. From April 9 to 13, the Garagem Antiga Varela, besides giving shelter to most of the four wheels that are going to travelling on the island, will be the stage of two concerts.

In the heart of the city of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, the old church of the Jesuit College, with the invocation of All the Saints, stands out for its imposing facade, decorated in volcanic stone, based on the baroque style. In the interior, we cannot ignore the sculptural exuberance of the carving of the main chapel, allied with the tiles panels that complete it, that are reminiscent of the splendor that had before the expulsion of the Jesuits ordered by the Marquis of Pombal in 1760.

From the rest of the church we can still see in the aisle and sacristy, paintings and sculptures from the 17th and 18th centuries, including the Coronation of the Virgin by Vasco Pereira Lusitano (1533-1609), painted in Seville in 1604, and paintings representing steps of the life of St. Francis Xavier attributed to Bento Coelho da Silveira (1602-1708), a royal painter.

In 2006, the collection of Sacred Art of the Carlos Machado Museum was integrated in this unusual heritage complex. Thus, at the beginning of the 21st century, this single aisle church, a stage of great events in the past, such as the recitation of the Sermon to St. Teresa de Ávila by Father António Vieira in 1654, has become a place of cultural enjoyment, whose vocation will always be of knowledge and teaching.

The Carlos Machado Museum building is housed in the former Santo André Convent, the first patron of Ponta Delgada. The history of this property dates back to the 16th century. It was founded in 1567, by Diogo Vaz Carreiro and his wife Beatriz Rodrigues Camelo, and definitively handed over to the female order of St. Francis in 1577. It was the second convent of the Poor Clares to be erected city, after that of Nossa Senhora da Esperança. This building is one of the beautiful examples of convent architecture of Ponta Delgada, having undergone several alterations throughout the centuries, until being adapted to museum in 1930. In the visit to this property, one can appreciate the conventual circuit, of cloister, the upper choir, the lower choir and its church, whose façade displays the magnificent decoration of volcanic stone, to the taste of the XVIII and XIX centuries, highlighting the windows of the XVI century. In its interior, of single nave, the lateral walls and the vaulted ceiling present fresco paintings, executed in 1820, being of the same time the altars and the pulpit of gilded carving.

The romantic António Borges garden is one of the largest green spaces in Ponta Delgada, and undoubtedly one of the most pleasant places in the Island of São Miguel. Nowadays a municipal park, it was once the property of António Borges Medeiros, a trader and politician from the Azores who was very interested in botany, and in the insertion of new species, namely exotic, in the Island, transforming his property in an interesting Botanical Garden. The beautiful green space portrays the romantic and picturesque spirit of the 19th century, and it today the stage for the most diverse sporting, leisure and cultural activities.

La Bamba is installed in a centennial shop converted into a modern space, where you can find the only record store in the Azores, the most original gifts and creations of local and international artists. This is the perfect place to find something different to offer to the ones you love and leave singing: "Yo no soy marinero... Soy capitán, soy capitán soy capitán…”.

Londrina has been the symbol of men's fashion in Ponta Delgada for more than fifty years. Located in Largo Vasco Bensaúde, it is a house with tradition, good taste, professionalism and very welcoming, and always ready to take part in various initiatives.

Structure built in the 19th century, composed of three distinct areas, located inside an enclosure delimited by a wall and iron railing. At the time of its construction each area had a function: the meat market, on the left, also known as the slaughterhouse, at the moment deactivated; the fish market, on the right, a space that today houses the Azorean Emigration Museum and the agricultural market, which is located in the center of the complex and which still maintains its function. In the interior of the grounds, its imposing araucarias, the flagstone pavement and the stonework fountain stand out. This is a space that is open all week, and in which cohabit a set of varied shops. At the weekend, you can find the traditional sale of local produce.

The Museu Vivo do Franciscanismo, once a conventual church of Nossa Senhora da Guadalupe, founded in the 17th century (1613-1626) was granted to the Mesericórdia da Ribeira Grande by the Queen D. Maria II after the extinction of religious orders in 1834. Since its inauguration on February 14, 2013, the Museu Vivo do Franciscanismo is an institution that has contributed to the knowledge of the historical identity of the archipelago of the Azores, materialised in the evangelising, pedagogical, cultural and cultural dimension of the Franciscan Order. It should be noted that although it is a museological structure, it keeps alive the cult of the image of the Christ tied to the column, known as the Christ of the Third, and that every year, on the first Sunday of Lent, he takes to the streets in procession.

Located in the heart of Ponta Delgada on São Miguel Island, with an innovative and unique style concept in the Azores Islands, the Neat Hotel Avenida focuses on simplicity and hospitality –  in keeping with its welcoming destination.

The Neat Hotel Avenida is both young and hip but also professional and comfortable, reflecting the essence and the green of the Azores. The moss of Terra Nostra Garden reflected in the room design, the photo panels depicting the history of the Main Avenue of Ponta Delgada and, finally, the use of the basalt reveal the vibe of the Azores indoors.

The Neat Hotel Avenida has 120 rooms and offers snack services, a lounge area, meeting rooms and gym.  

Back to the origins of a volcano, a green paradise emerged "Out of the Blue" in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. A more than hundred-years-old house, full of mysteries and stories, reborn in a minimalistic design inspired by the simplicity of lava rock.

The Out of the Blue was built on an early 20th century manor which is surrounded by a garden full of species that have inhabited the island since its inception. The original trait was preserved, but the comfortable touch of modernity was introduced in a modest way and with an immense good taste. The space is cosy and tidy, and mixes wood and old stone with contemporary colors and touches.

Solar da Graça was inaugurated in 1954. Apart from a typical restaurant of tourist interest, it is also a concert hall that has a crucial role in the social and night life of Ponta Delgada. Names such as Amália Rodrigues or Duo Ouro Negro. It is a unique place in Ponta Delgada due to its history, its picturesque aspect and its interior design with watercolors and oils on canvas by Micaelense painter Victor Câmara. This venue only opens to the public for social and private events and not on a daily basis.

A descendant of the tradition of cinema-theatres, Teatro Micaelense is the custodian of over 60 years of history. Inaugurated in 1951, it was designed by the renowned architect Raul Rodrigues de Lima, a specialist in cinema and theatre rooms. For its historical and architectural value, the building of the Teatro Micaelense was classified as a Public Interest Site and rehabilitated by the Azores Regional Government, reopening its doors to the public in 2004, with a design by architect Manuel Salgado.

Nowadays, the main mission of Teatro Micaelense is to assure the providing of a public service within the field of cultural promotion, through the presentation, production and co-production of activities from the most diverse artistic areas: from theater to dance, from classical music to jazz, from cinema to the visual arts and photography. It is an open stage for the community and intends to be a driving force in the field of artistic creation, providing local creators with a space to present their work to the public.

The construction of the Teatro Ribeiragrandense began in the year 1920, at the will of a group of young men who together founded the Teatro Ribeira Grandense company. However, the conclusion of the building works only happened in 1933 with the Sociedade Teatral Ribeiragrandense company.

In 1988, the theater hall was acquired by the Ribeira Grande City Hall, undergoing major intervention and expansion works to maintain its original structure. In 2000, the Teatro Ribeiragrandense was reopened, thus tendering back to the city one of the most important cultural infrastructures. The building was classified as a property of public interest in 1989.