mazagran records

Manuel Mota || electric guitar

Jason Kahn || percussion, analog synthesizer

Recorded October 23, 2009
(250 copies limited edition, digipack)

“Espírito Santo” was recorded one October day in Lisbon in the cellar of the “Espírito Santo” building. Formerly a bank, this building had been empty many years and was recently opened again for artists to use as studio and exhibition space. The room we recorded in, resembling at first glance more a cave than a cellar, is remarkable for its acoustics. With eight-meter high ceilings, brick walls and concrete floor we found ourselves dealing with a very responsive space. In addition to this, the local subway line ran adjacent to the building and its vibrations could be felt (and heard) during the recording.

Manuel suggested we record in this space. In the end, as much our musical interaction as our relationship to the acoustical qualities of the space shaped how we played and how these recordings ultimately sounded. It would be an exaggeration and perhaps a cliché to once again invoke the name of Fernando Pessoa with reference to Lisbon, but for me there is definitely something to the pace and feeling of these recordings which reminds me of Pessoa’s endless lifetime opus  “The Book of Disquiet”. The music progresses slowly and at times verging on a dreamlike momentum. While recording these pieces I soon lost my sense of time, floating in the catacomb of sound we were creating.

–Notes Jason Kahn