WED, 02 NOV 11, 19:30 KINGS PLACE – HALL ONEBUY TICKETS HERE
Claudia Aurora
[Portugal] [Launch of her debut album, "Silêncio" (World Village/Harmonia Mundi)]
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ARTIST: Claudia Aurora
COUNTRY: Portugal
GENRE: Fado
ABOUT: With a following to rival flamenco, the haunting melodies of Portuguese fado have always held listeners spellbound; Claudia Aurora is its powerful new voice. The singer-songwriter is presently working on her debut album “Silêncio”, the first collection of original fado songs to be recorded in the UK since the great Portuguese Fado diva Amália Rodrigues recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1952. “Silêncio” will be released worldwide by World Village/Harmonia Mundi with a UK release date scheduled for 31 October 2011.
Claudia Aurora is a fadista (fado singer) and songwriter from Oporto, Portugal. She is based in Bristol, UK since 2003 and has built a reputation as a stunning live performer. Claudia has sung Fado at numerous venues in Bristol and the UK, including the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Hall (Southbank Centre), Momo and Heaven, in London, Royal Theatre in Norwich, and St George’s in Bristol. Her shows have been recorded and broadcasted by BBC Radio 3.
Since 2006 she has frequently organised successful Fado events, adding live Portuguese poetry to create complete cultural celebrations. In 2008 she began writing her own lyrics and composing her own original songs with guitarist Javier Moreno. The great success achieved by her songs and the public’s amazing response to them inspired and motivated her to record “Silêncio”.
“Silêncio” will be launched at Kings Place (Hall One), in London, on 2nd November, as part of LIFEM: London International Festival of Exploratory Music, followed by a UK tour (7 dates in total already confirmed). The album will be a showcase of both her powerful voice and her unique original songs. The first fados to be written in the UK, these songs deal with the traditional Fado themes of life, destiny, longing and despair.
Fado (translated as destiny or fate) can be traced back to the 1820s in Portugal.
MORE ABOUT: Claudia Aurora sings fado – traditional Portuguese folk-blues – like no one else. We shouldn’t, perhaps, be surprised. After all, she enjoyed a thoroughly modern musical upbringing in the tiny village just outside Porto that was her childhood home, with fado only coming to the fore once she’d struck out for the UK and settled in Bristol.
It was here, in a city already famed for musicians blending old ingredients into something wholly new, that past and present combined to give a taste of the future. The being raised on a diet of early Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Neil Young and Diamond (when Claudia first realised she could sing – really sing – it was to a Janis Joplin song). The late teens love of Brazilian music, be it bossa nova or MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira, an umbrella term for everything that came after bossa nova), and singers like Elis Regina and Maria Bethania, songwriters such as Chico Buarque, Vinicius De Morais or Milton Nascimento.
And then Claudia’s move, to a place far from friends and family, quite naturally unlocked a musical form renowned for its heady mix of loss, longing, love, and nostalgia: fado. Suddenly, she found herself singing the songs sung by her grandmother, a chef who would sing fado come sundown, and the woman from whom Claudia – real surname Silva – takes her stage name. Music is also in the blood of her singer/actor father, and her uncle. She was, she says, destined to sing. And, while also taking inspiration from homeland singer-songwriters like Zeca Afonso, Dulce Pontes and the great Amália Rodrigues, that’s precisely what she’s done ever since moving to England.
Eight years later, it is time for the rest of the world to hear Bristol’s secret. It is time for “Silêncio”. Welcome to the sound of “Silêncio”. A groundbreaking sound. The sound of the first collection of original fado songs ever written in the UK.
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY:
- “Silêncio” (World Village/Harmonia Mundi, 2011)
SELECTED PRESS REVIEWS AND QUOTES:
“Spine-tingling” (Alex Denney, NME)
“A finely judged and superbly executed programme” (Gordon Turner, Norwich)
“She is really amazing – one of my highlights of the year” (Viktor Wynd, The Last Tuesday Society)
“Drenched in emotion and drama” (Lucy Duran, BBC Radio 3)
“Boy, she has a voice, as elementally strong as the tides of which she sings, and as imbued with ability to induce calm and awe.” (Venue Magazine)
“Porto-born singer/songwriter Claudia Aurora enraptures with the spine-tingling emotion of her powerful, mournful Fado torch songs. Her extraordinary voice, drenched in a sadness that courses through the audience, gives the soaring sound of Portugal unique dramatic expression.” (St.George’s Bristol)
SELECTED PERFORMANCES:
- Musicport Festival, Bridlington, UK (2011)
- London International Festival of Exploratory Music (LIFEM), London, UK (2011)
- Balchick Palace, Balchik, Bulgaria (2011)
- Varna Theatre, Varna, Bulgaria (2011)
- Harbourt Festival, Bristol, UK (2011)
- Melt! Festival, Gräfenhainichen, Germany (2011) (as a guest of These New Puritans)
- La Machine du Moulin Rouge, Paris, France (2011) (as a guest of These New Puritans)
- Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Norwich, UK (2011)
- Heaven, London, UK (2011) (as a guest of These New Puritans)
- Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, UK (2011)
- Momo, London, UK (2011)
SELECTED VIDEO:
SONGS:
BOOKING AGENCY: RED ORANGE
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WED, 02 NOV 11, 19:30 KINGS PLACE – HALL ONE