VI.BE

Bárbara C. Branco, Brussels based multidisciplinary artist-cum-singersongwriter joins forces with multi-percussionist Falk Schrauwen and multi-tool Mathieu Versini. Together they form the band Baralha, where Branco’s songs are buoyed and borne from her Portuguese shores by Schrauwen’s rhythmic references, sourced and studied from across the seas, while Versini’s submarine frequencies plunge us deep into the ocean drink.

Not everything is so far-flung or wide in scope here. There are also tales of a more domestic intimacy, Come and hear stories sung and strummed, large and small, both geographically disparate and locally sourced. The Fado of home and melodies all her own offer us a counterpoint to the angular grooves of PEGA and electricity of Tuvalu, Branco’s other musical projects.

There is the determinism of fado but also the punk determination of a fish from different waters, now swimming, singing, guitaring in a new sea of her own making. By Joey Wright