Thomas Olsson Releases Improvisation [02.04.2008]         Since its very beginning, Gouveia Art Rock has been more than just a festival, aiming at a wider strategy of promoting and discussing progressive music. Since 2005, the festival has been a destiny of choice for musicologists, music lovers and audiences eager on debates around ideas and concepts, and significant efforts have been made to document the new scientific and cultural knowledge about progressive music gathered in the process.         Last year's round table was once again coordinated and moderated by renowned Swedish musicologist Thomas Olsson, focusing on the question of whether composition and improvisation are really opposite approaches to music, and what possibilities there are for improvisation in contemporary progressive music, which is largely dominated by a highly compositional approach. And once again, Gouveia Art Rock has crystalised the essence of last year's round table in a thoroughly absorbing booklet packed to the brim with interesting reflections. This highly recommended bilingual essay by Thomas Olsson comprises the collaboration of the musicians Luca Calabrese, Tom Griesgraber, Pamelia Kurstin, Pat Mastelotto, Carlos Plaza, Markus Reuter and Christian Saggese.

Recital by PREC at the Library  [1.04.2008]         They call themselves Projecto Ressonante Experimental Criativo (Ressonant Experimental Creative Project), short 'PREC', and they promise to deliver a well-humoured performance that challenges our sense of hearing by the pure creation of sounds. PREC performs music improvised on wind instruments ranging from free jazz to avant-garde, using a language that draws in part on the duo's musical imagination, and in part on solutions stemming for known composers as different as Zappa or Fripp. PREC comprise Paulo Chagas on saxophone and flute, and Fernando Simões on trombone: Both these musicians are well-known for their common performances with Portuguese bands such as Miosótis or Zappanóia.

Round-Table: Does Humour Belong in Music  [1.04.2008]         Progressive music has always been accused by the critics as 'taking itself too seriously'. But is that true? In fact, and unlike mainstream rock music, which focuses on instant satisfaction without giving much thought to elaborate or experimental arrangements, art rock, symphonic rock or avant-garde progressive music have always been much more ambitious. And yet, for this very same reason, progressive music has always also meant the integration of all kinds of parallel arts from different musical style to visual arts, theatre and even cinema. It is therefore worthwhile taking a closer look at a question posed by the ingenious Frank Zappa in a provocative tone, knowing that he himself would probably be the answer.         This round table will be coordinated and moderated once again by renowned Swedish musicologist Thomas Olsson (University of Lund).

Mike Keneally Joins GAR 2008  [1.03.2008]         What can be said about someone about whom almost anything can be said?         Mike Keneally is undeniably part of a very small circle of performers and composers: in 1988 he played with Frank Zappa's band, and that only would be sufficient to define him – unpredictable, eclectic, flawless, explosive. His countless contributions to modern music history include eleven albums with original music released since 1992, as well as his performances on Zappa albums between 1988 and 1993 (year when genius Zappa passed away) and performances with renowned instrumentalists such as Mark Craney and Steve Vai.         Keneally's compositional skills encompass basically any musical style one can imagine, and not only is he an accomplished rock musician, but he also composes contemporary orchestra music and experimental music, as on his masterpiece The Universe Will Provide (2004). Keneally is both a serious and playful musician, and his live performances, be they solo or together with the band that occasionally supports him, are unforgettable events.         Not only does he show his multi-instrumental skills, but he can even play multiple instruments at the same time, almost like a magician juggling his potions.         Mike Keneally's one-man show in Gouveia will be proof of this, or – who know – perhaps even the contrary. With Mike Keneally, anything goes.

Van der Graaf Generator: The Legend Is Alive  [31.1.2008]         The late 60s changed everything and left an indelible cultural mark in History. They were the time of deconstruction. The time of breaking down frontiers and barriers, the end of the great empires ... the time of Van der Graaf Generator.         In these times when the emergence of post-modernism was announcing the end of the great narrations, music progressed to the limits of the unthinkable. And but a few dared to take it as far as the quartet consisting of Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton, Guy Evans and David Jackson. These four Mancunian university students took their inspiration from Physics to name their musical project.         Ever since 1969, Van der Graaf Generator stands for music that is avant-garde, daring, creative, surprising and ... that is art. Uncompromising, unerring and among the most ingenious and unique music of modern times.          Milestone albums like H to He Who Am The Only One, Pawn Hearts, Godbluff ou Still Life changed the course of musical history and influenced whole generations of composers and poets. The existentialist lyrics of Hammill, the chameleon, Evans's minimalistic metamorphoses, Banton's ingenious solemnity and Jackson's profound depth all add brilliantly to Van der Graaf Generator's into vast musical soundscapes. Dark as the insides of the human mind. Bright as the cosmos itself.         In 2005 the band began touring again after almost three decades of silence. With them, they brought new music and the same visceral energy as always.         In their closing act of the 6th Gouveia Art Rock festival, Van der Graaf Generator will perform the brand-new album Triosector.         The legend is alive, and now for the first time ever in Portugal.

The Symphonic, Theatrical Music of Ange  [21.1.2008]         When French prog act Ange climbs the stage at the Gouveia Cinema-Theatre Hall, one of the most inexplicable lapses in the history of progressive concerts in Portugal will be mended. Despite a prolific career with more than thirty albums recorded and thousands of shows across almost all European countries and North America, the widely popular and renowned band led by Christian Décamps has never before performed in Portugal.         This lapse is stranger still when considering that the band's live performances stand out for their amazing quality, emotional power and excellent, theatrical stage shows. Over its four decades of existence, the band has always had extremely capable musicians and outstanding singers – especially noteworthy Tristan's remarkable vocal range and Christian Décamps's dramatic or humoristic interpretation of each song on stage. Ange plays wide-ranging, highly consistent, dynamic and original symphonic rock.         At the 2008 GAR, Ange will perform their latest studio album Souffleurs de Vers. The critically acclaimed album was recorded in November 2007 and stands out for its perfect production.

Les Reines Prochaines: Queens of Provocation  [14.1.2008]        It is impossible not to be amazed by all-female Swiss band Reines Prochaines! Their stage show is a witty and poignant inquisition into the costumes, institutions, modes and fears of modern society, both challenging and entertaining the audience of their concept-based shows.         The band, who confesses to admiring artists like Robert Wyatt, Meredith Monk, Carla Bley, Stiller Haas, Albert Mangelsdorf and Fanfare Ciocarlia, will perform their Festival of Organs ('Fest der Organe'), will present the Gouveia audience with a musical stage show where Anatomy is used as an analogy for illustrating the moral background of human existence. And yet their performance is far from matching the seriousness of the topic, hinting in fact at burlesque theatre or a Berlin cabaret, at times performed with deliberate dillentantism.         And while none of the Reines Prochaines consider themselves to be accomplished instrumentalists, this is not a mandatory requirement for them as their music uses relatively simple structures, upon which they spread equal humorous measures of woodwinds, reeds, percussion, strings or keyboards. And of course, they all can sing, which they do loud, clear and always in the lesser or louder tones of provocation.              These 'queens of provocation' have managed to turn the at times almost tacky humour of their songs, dances, stage costumes and performance into a powerful weapon of social criticism.

Beduínos a Gasóleo to open GAR  [13.1.2008]        While having been active for quite some time already, Beduínos a Gasóleo is a further Portuguese progressive band that has gained new breath thanks to the Gouveia Art Rock festival.         The band's sound which in the late 90s and first years of the new millennium tended towards toward classic rock, has now turned to clearly less song-oriented structures driven largely by bad leader and composer José Carlos Fialho. It was also Fialho who came up with the unheard-of idea in Portugal to record a multi-artist concept album based on the Portuguese national epic poem The Lusiads. The album was planned to feature several Portuguese progressive bands, each one of which would set one of the Cantos by poet Luís de Camões to music. Beduínos a Gasóleo chose Canto IV and kept on developing it meticulously into an epic symphonic long-track, featuring famous Portuguese folk singer Janita Salomé. It is precisely this long-track that marks the band's debut album, launched in 2007.         And it is Beduínos a Gasóleo who will raise the curtains and open the sixth Gouveia Art Rock festival.

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