Fausto (1948-2024) in an interview from 2011, the year of his last album: “Privilegeii os dreamers”
Article originally published on November 19, 2011, in Expresso’s “Atual†magazine
Fausto Bordalo Dias is a fundamental name in Portuguese music, since the days of intervention music. He stood out as a composer and has published works considered milestones in the national discography, especially the trilogy around the navigations and contacts of the Portuguese around the world: “Por este Rio Acima”, “Crónicas da Terra Ardente” and the new “Em Quest for the Blue Mountains”, which led to this interview.
“When I arrived here, in 1969, I brought the music I made in the shadow of the tropics, which, in fact, I concentrated on the album ‘A Preto e Branco’ [1988], with things from my 15, 20 years… The change in pattern occurred through contact with the club. I met Adriano Correia de Oliveira, Manuel Freire and later Zeca Afonso, who was always looking for anyone who could join him, as he didn’t play those things there. I followed him and Adriano a lot. At a certain point, I stopped singing. They sang so well, and I said: ‘I don’t sing anything…’ I stopped singing, without ever stopping to accompany them. Sometimes, tired, they would ask me for two or three songs… I would sing there, very upset. With that I gained confidence. I found the ballad musically rudimentary for what I could develop with the guitar, but it was what put me in contact with traditional Portuguese music. Today it is very difficult, if not impossible, to verify any influence of such tropics on my music. This evolution can be seen in an album I recorded in 1977, ‘Madrugada dos Trapeiros’. In ‘Por Este Rio Acima’ there is nothing left… There may be oriental things, but to underline the geographical position of Fernão Mendes Pinto’s journey. On the album that will be released there is a note that indicates that what we have there are developments and stylizations based on traditional Portuguese music. Nothing more. As it is a trip through Africa, someone could be suggested…”
