Joana Guerra, Yaw Tembe

“Born from an invitation for an artistic residency at the Lisbon venue Damas during the deconfinement period, this conjuration formed by Joana Guerra and Yaw Tembe has been following up on that first duo encounter, through a continued craft at an unhurried pace that has ‘Orogénese’ as its first perennial record. Released by Facada Records, ‘Orogénese’ takes its name from the geological process of mountain formation and rejuvenation as a guide for music that evokes tectonic movements and the spirits they unleash, counterflow to the impatience of our times.

Using a wide range of instruments, including the trumpet, enchanting voices, evocative cello lines, various percussions and solemn traces of electronics, keyboards, flutes or field recordings, the eight pieces of ‘Orogenése’ flow in a slow, breathy past, as if rescuing from silence and memory an eternal present of sounds that project possible futures, full of lyricism and infused with an aura of mystery. An almost impressionistic album, made possible only through an organic complicity between two artists whose recognizable work across multiple fronts has been marked by a keen and honest curiosity in how they explore paths previously unfathomed, revealing them under a light entirely their own. ‘Orogénese’ discovers the sound hidden in the apparent stillness of the “imperfect temporal continuum,” in the land and in the ghosts, pasts and futures that dwell here.” - Bruno Silva