The art of grounding light

Lúcia De Carvalho: vocals and percussion
Christophe Negrit: percussion and vocals
Edouard Heilbronn: guitar and vocals
Victor Pitoiset: bass and guitar Lúcia de Carvalho is an alchemist, a seeker of meaning, an igniter of essences. His voice transmits vibrations that heal and transform; Her drum speaks the voice of the ancestors, inviting us to reconnect with our deepest self. Voice and rhythm come together, at the service of beauty, which inhabits us and surrounds us. For those ready to set sail and set sail, her hybrid universe acts as a beacon, urging you to stay the course despite the winds and tides. Everything is there. All we have to do is get on board and let go. Little Lúcia, born in Luanda, Angola, had no idea of the unpredictable twists and turns fate had in store for her, as she listened to her mother sing to ease the burden of the long days spent raising her five daughters. When she left for Portugal, her mother took her three youngest daughters with her. While she was looking for work, her daughters spent their days in a shelter, mostly for African children. Lúcia spent wonderful years there, playing games, songs and the women who took care of her and her sisters. She was 12 years old when she was told that she and her two sisters would be going to live with an adoptive family in France. So it was that she ended up in Meistratzheim, a small village in Alsace, to which Lúcia quickly adapted, even though she missed her mother who remained in Portugal terribly. She had no intention of forgetting her African roots. Roots that resurfaced in a completely unexpected way when Brazilian music -cousin of the Angolan one- came to visit Lúcia in Meistratzheim, thanks to the work of the group Som Brasil, with whom Lúcia will take her first musical steps passing, in 10 years of association, from chorister to main singer and from dance to drums. In 2008 she decided to pursue a solo career, writing her own songs. Three years later, her first EP "Ao descubrir o mundo" reveals her passion for rhythm, her Brazilian loves and the desire to make this heritage travel giving it a rock and reggae flavor. "Quem Sou? Who am I?" she asks in one of the songs. The question torments the one who oscillates between France, her Angolan origins and the Brazilian promised land. Then she meets Edouard Heilbronn, a young Alsatian bass player back from almost three years of traveling on the other side of the world, ended with a long stay in the city of all rhythms: Salvador de Bahia. And what was written to happen happens: they begin to share life and music, work together on their compositions offering the audience all the radiant and positive energy of Lúcia. Then, with the demo of a new album in their hands, they set off on a long journey as musical as initiatory, passing through Brazil and Angola. "Kuzola" ("Love" in Kimbundu language) is the name of the album, released in 2016, which springs from this journey, but it is also a sensitive and moving documentary, which traces Lúcia's search for her roots, offering her answers to questions about her identity: "the roots are Angola, the stem is Portugal, the flower is Brazil and France is the soil that allows this flower to grow". If "Kuzola" was a research focused on meaning, in her latest album the search is for essence. Recorded and mixed in Ferber Studios in Paris by Jean Lamoot, "Pwanga" ("Light") is an opportunity for Lúcia to venture into uncharted territories, still in symbiosis with Edouard. Africa – and of course Brazil – are still there, like the heart of this woman, who lives and composes with a beat of the drum, finding lyrics, melodies and rhythm in the same momentum. A rough diamond that his partner polishes, enriching it with harmonies and sound images that transform many moments of the record into real travel movies. Other important collaborators of this luminous repertoire are the illustrious Brazilian singer Chico César, the powerful and warm voice of the singer Anna Tréa, and two veterans of Angolan music: the percussionist Galiano Neto and the producer-guitarist Betinho Feijo, known for their long work alongside the great Bonga Kwenda. While the virtuoso Zé Luis Nascimento (Mayra Andrade, Ayo, Cesaria Evora) managed to sublimate the essence of each piece with his original and varied vocabulary of Brazilian, Eastern and Western percussion. In "Pwanga" Lúcia transports us to the East, flirting with the colors of Europe and Central Asia with voices that approach the mystical flights of qawwali music; immerses us in songs with gospel tones, intimate prayers of those who have found peace in their hearts, far from the pains and ruptures of the world; it impresses us with gnawa musicians, from Morocco, inspiring the color of Saeli, a name cradled by warm and sandy winds, an ode to the beauty of the birth of the firstborn; she sings in Chokwe (a language spoken in Congo, Angola and Zambia) the work, fatigue, strength and dreams of the peasant women of Huambo, in the heart of Angola... a close friend of Lúcia's worked with them, encouraging them to write poetry in praise of themselves as a means of rebuilding their self-esteem. "Through struggle, through tenderness, God has made me strong," says one of them. "There are those who hate us, or who see us as weak, but in me there is a strength that brings all of humanity." Magnified by Lúcia's voice, these poems proclaim the luminous power of those women. As they gather for the last photo, they are asked, "Pangwa ni Puy?" ("Light or darkness?"). Just like those women, "Pwanga" associates sweetness with power, meaning with essence, light with the deep roots of a tree born in Africa, whose branches embrace the world, whose flowers appear as songs. It took her a while to understand this, but her very name proclaims her vocation and she did so from the beginning. Lúcia, 'light'; by Carvalho, 'the oak' in Portuguese: the strength of the tree. A revelation that well illustrates her poetic and human research: "rooting the light".

https://www.luciadecarvalho.com/