Largo da Memória

With Largo da Memória (Coast of Memory), Ribeiro confirms himself as one of the most distinctive artists in the new wave of fadistas. While many of his contemporaries have updated fado by lending it an easy listening ambience and elements of pop or lounge jazz, Ribeiro has gone his own way. Shining through is a sense of unvarnished tradition, both in terms of musical roots and craftsmanship. The interplay between singer and guitar in ‘Entrega’, for example, exhibits the sort of rapport that's hard won on the fado circuit. There's virtuoso guitar playing and real vocal character here – it's a far cry from the regulation velvety sound you get from many singers.

Also essential to Ribeiro's musical world is his interest in wider influences. For ‘Fado do Alentejo’, Ribeiro revives his collaboration with Lebanese composer and oud (lute) player Rabih Abou-Khalil (heard on their acclaimed 2008 album, Em Português,reviewed in #54). There's a cantiga de seguir, a form of song developed by the troubadours of old, while ‘Romance’ pays homage to the baroque period, with guitars used contrapuntally. It's not an obvious approach for a romance, though the music inexorably builds, develops and deconstructs with touching emotional understatement. Ribeiro picks up a guitar himself for one instrumental track, with riffs drawing on Arab roots, before the album closes in homely territory with ‘Fado é Canto Peregrino’.