Vítor Rua – Electronic Music 1993-2018 – CD

A second volume of Vítor Rua music mostly hidden in plain sight across online platforms and outside of any scene. We penetrate its flow at random points and are allowed the privilege to redesign its impact by “sampling out” those moments which we perceive as a new entity when carefully pasted together.

This operation uncovers seven pieces that add to Rua‘s robust reputation as an experimental yet sensitive, emotional musician. The core of  the album is taken up by two long pieces: “Jorge” appears as a heartfelt tribute to his late partner Jorge Lima Barreto’s style of playing the synthesizer. Soft curvy waves ever in motion. “Metallophone Suite” is an intimate exploration of that one instrument (the metallophone), mapping a personal journey, going off in a sort of trance lasting over 20 minutes (the original piece is much longer). We observe and take part.

Smaller pieces “B Boy #4” and “Data #5” are taken from the archive of Telectu’s recordings, part of two never properly released albums. “B Boy” the album  was several things: companion to Jorge’s book with the same title, pinning down his very sceptic view of dance music; a critique of that very same dance music; an exercise in irony by exposing the non imaginative use of the equipment’s preset sounds; “Data”, from 1996, sounds like an update of the classic Telectu minimal period but informed by contemporary technology from the 1990s, an inspiration in itself. In “Data #5” the guitar tells most of the story, though.

“Madonna Velata” is presented in a compact, edited form, highlighting the groove, the swathes of guitar and Madonna’s very serious message from the heights of fame. For the series of collages he titled “Documentary Musical Tribute”, Rua gathers material from records and online sources: Morricone, Beatles, Hendrix, James Brown, Joni Mitchell, Klaus Nomi, among others, are reshuffled according to his view of each one’s career.

“vr-em-93” is an unreleased piece.

Rua co-founded the pop band GNR in 1980 and left (or “fired”) the rest of the band in 1982 to concentrate on Telectu, a long-standing experimental duo he maintained with Jorge Lima Barreto. Over the years he also applied his boundless creativity to numerous collaborations, production work and solo output. “Electronic Music 1993-2018” showcases a host of alien music rescued from online oblivion.