Listening to GLOSSOLALIA

by Barbara Engelmann

Whenever Miguel Martins describes one of the musical projects of “A Favola da Medusa” to me he gives me a warning: very experimental, noisy, crazy. He defines them as “very free”. They are very “free”, in fact  - free of musical conventions and restrictions. They are a crossover, which overcomes the frontiers of our listening habits – a challenge and an opportunity to whoever is ready to listen.

The band’s or rather the collective’s latest project GLOSSOLALIA appears to be the utmost elaboration of the artistic understanding that fuels the creativity of “A Favola da Medusa”:

Glossolalia means pronouncing words or sounds in a foreign “language” – unknown to the listener, unfamiliar, not yet explored – may be mystical. Glossolalia is the appropriate title for this project, which melts various elements of our perception, like music, sounds, noises, words, breath… into a soundscape, which opens the opportunity to cross familiar horizons, to open ears, heart, mind to something which may appear as strange, noisy, crazy, experimental … but actually offers a different way of listening, not only to these sounds, but to a whole cosmos of acoustic possibilities – free of restrictive conventions.

The project involves 18 artists, all named on the front of the cover, without revealing the character of their individual contribution, like voice, musical  instrument, text, technical or conceptional support – whatever adds to the creation of this artistic possibility: open, free – and at the same time demanding.