“We had an thought to movie me leaping into the Douro River and swimming away,” says Luís Neto from AG.R97 as we’re driving to go to the band’s studio in Gaia, a metropolis simply throughout the river from Porto. “We had all of it deliberate out, the place we’d movie it, what it’d appear to be. Once we obtained to the situation, we had no thought how deep the water was or what was beneath. It all of a sudden appeared a bit too harmful.
“It’s additionally unlawful,” provides Pedro Pimentel, the opposite half of the Portuguese duo. “We’d in all probability have gotten arrested.”
Had it been made, the video would have accompanied ‘Fuga De Gaia’ (Escape from Gaia), the seventh observe on AG.R97’s new album, Painwave. “The thought was to additional develop the story across the entity that surrounded the studio, in the long run I’d cross the river swimming and it might be revealed that the entity was in actual fact us,” Neto continues.
That mysterious entity Neto mentions is all a part of the DIY fantasy world the duo have constructed, impressed as a lot by gaming as their shared love for the absurd and the uncanny. It’s hinted at within the two movies accompanying their new album, each conceived by the band themselves and recorded on a shoestring price range with a close-knit group of collaborators, together with Daniel Martins and Inês Baptista. “We did the video for ‘Foi Azar’ utilizing 5 euro lights meant for building websites, we recorded it within the woods close to Gaia,” Neto explains.
The duo’s music on Painwave follows its personal algorithm, Pimentel saying composing got here from a headspace akin to a roleplaying recreation. Jagged key motifs harking back to John Carpenter’s Halloween soundtrack weave by synthesized medieval soundscapes, steel heft, and temporary flashes of glistening pop that are so misplaced they turn into sinister. It’s a world the place trancey synths flip into planet consuming drum breaks, doomy growls bleed into autotune anthems, and prospers of fretless bass and hypnotic rhythms akin to a digitalized Mkwaju Ensemble emerge in probably the most unlikely of locations.
Chatting with the pair, it’s clear the extremes of their music are an try to take one thing magical and unpredictable out of their environment. This quest began with them constructing their very own studio, in an unlikely setting, the third ground of an apartment-come-office constructing (since recording Painwave they’ve relocated to the fourth ground).
“The constructing has a really odd vibe, an previous workplace within the weirdest place doable,” explains Pimentel, who additionally makes hyper vivid darkish ambient as Wordclock. “A concrete jungle in a residential space. The constructing is half empty, the opposite half you’re not fairly positive what’s occurring there. There’s accountants and subsequent to them is prostitution. Considered one of our neighbours informed us occult issues occur in one of many rooms – it’s weird because it’s probably the most unassuming place you’ll be able to think about.”
Though each Neto and Pimentel categorical some skepticism as to how occult these goings on reported by the neighbour could have truly been, it nonetheless factors to environment that maybe comprise greater than meets the attention.
“I really like Gaia however Gaia is ugly as hell,” provides Neto. “Now, whenever you’re on the studio’s balcony, you could have this ultra-panoramic view of Porto and the mountains. It looks like the one stunning place in Gaia. However, once we have been on the third ground we couldn’t see it correctly. All we might see was a church within the distance, it was illuminated at evening and surrounded by bushes. It was our monolith, it felt just like the centre of all the pieces.”
“We began making our personal lore, these imaginary characters and tales” explains Pimentel. “It was the extraordinary temper of spending complete days there. We began feeling alienated from the actual world. We simply noticed Gaia throughout, and this fucking constructing. The vibe was very odd. Then at evening, we’d see the lights within the distance, the view. We’d drift off and construct a mythology round this constructing and this place, it was escapist.”
“We have now a backlog in our messenger chat of this lore we made – you may write a e book from it,” says Neto.
“Like, some hermit in a cave having some revelations and writing it down,” Pimentel provides.
Gaming is integral to the duo’s music. Pimentel admits AG.R97 wouldn’t have occurred with out Age Of Empires II, over which the 2 initially bonded. He additionally mentions Diablo II, arguing Matt Uelmen’s soundtrack to the sport is the all-time recorded. It’s a topic which Neto later picks up with me over e-mail, explaining each video games have been “formative and heightened our imaginations.”
Greater than a sonic affect, gaming as a mode of escape, as a possibility to enter a multisensory aesthetic that blocks out the tedious on a regular basis, is an concept that pulses by AG.R97, whether or not of their music or of their movies. “We have been making insane tales, taking part in video games for hours, simply attempting to make one thing occur,” recollects Pimentel. “AG.R97 began there, creating ridiculous situations in Age of Empires II, it wasn’t about taking part in the sport effectively. We have been simply doing foolish issues, having enjoyable, eventful, silly experiences inside the sport. It took us someplace else.”
“Taking part in the video games is similar because the church we will see by the window,” speculates Neto. “You’re younger, in your own home, you don’t have anything to do. And also you’re misplaced on this wonderful, stunning world. How can I extract one thing from this to my life, as a result of I like it a lot. It’s the identical with music.”
The entire challenge is a DIY affair made with a close-knit group of collaborators. The album is being launched on Turva, an audio-visual label Neto co-founded with Alexandre Alagôa.
“I met Alexandre a number of years in the past – he was an superior steel guitarist taking part in covers on Youtube. I despatched a message, we grew to become good mates, some years later our paths crossed and we began Turva,” says Neto. The label supplies a captivating lens on Portugal’s digital underground, Vasco Lé’s spectacularly titled You Know, Everyone Wanna Say “I Do This, I Do That” Everybody Acts Like They’re Laborious As Shit However Simply Cease, is a beguiling mixture of housey pads and plunderphonic collage. That in itself is probably common, however its beats see drum and bass tempo collide with an elastic, free-jazz sense of non-gridded house. It’s music as mind-blowing as it’s troublesome to put.
Funcionário’s album Shichishito, in the meantime, feels like Burial created a soundtrack for a Ultimate Fantasy recreation. Sped up voices flicker into choral drift, underpinned by a mattress of esoteric percussion, stringed and wind devices. It’s ambient music firmly directed in direction of firing the creativeness somewhat than curating background.
For Neto, the label is a approach to make clear a few of what’s occurring within the Portuguese underground which maybe will get neglected by regular supporters of experimental artwork. “With the humanities scene, I grew to become conscious of funds and grants, however should you’re a no person it’s actually exhausting to get except you’re doing one thing actually related to the area. We’ve funded the label all from our personal pockets, however it’s bittersweet. It’s exhausting whenever you’re struggling to pay for different folks’s music. Even you probably have a €1000 price range for a report, that received’t even get you a vinyl launch.”
The label is propelled by a perception that adventurous music evades trend. Most of the releases, as with AG.R97, appear particularly designed to flee smooth minimalism and austere manufacturing. To problem the concept there are particular pointers which decide what counts as experimental. “We really feel a part of one thing right here. It’s bizarre, in Porto everybody is aware of one another, artists are always releasing wonderful stuff, you play in the identical areas, that’s life right here,” explains Neto.
The label strives to unearth the thrilling music occurring on their doorstep, nonetheless excessive it might be. “I lived in Ghent for some time, it was enjoyable, however when the novelty stops, it‘s the identical all over the place you go. You’re alone along with your ideas in your room someplace and the remainder is noise – whether or not good noise or unhealthy noise. I realised my mates, my surroundings, what we constructed right here was vital to me. Ultimately, I made a decision, possibly I ought to take the cash I made working in a warehouse, and fuck off again to Portugal and use it to make music,” says Neto.
Pimentel, who spent a 12 months working as an intern within the UK, shares the sentiment. “I felt alienated in London. I requested myself: ‘what do I would like, do I need to keep right here as a result of it’s London? What’s vital for me in my life?’ I didn’t suppose it was value it, so I simply got here again. It was exhausting to be alone there, to attempt to relate there… simply because it’s London doesn’t imply it ought to be a aim.”
There’s a way of playfulness throughout Painwave. A sense that the surprising or the illogical might occur at any level. On ‘Foi Azar’, doom-laden growls fall into autotuned pop, all underpinned by an off-kilter mattress of flutes. On ‘Visconde Sermonde’, the album’s second observe, meditative new age flips into synth brass propelled medieval soul. If their aesthetic resonates with something, it’s maybe probably the most dungeon-synth adjoining aspect of the Avon Terror Corps catalogue. As with the Bristol collective, for AG.R97, embracing fantastical extremes with utmost conviction is an important a part of what they do.
Neto is intrigued by artists comparable to Aphex Twin or Frank Zappa, who mix fierce experimentation with a warped sense of humour. “However even somebody like Woody Allen, in the event that they weren’t so humorous their artwork wouldn’t be so dramatic. I really feel just like the distinction is what makes it attention-grabbing. It’s an intuition to snicker when all the pieces goes the worst it may well go – how can we detach from the anger, despair, all the pieces that’s unhealthy?” Neto asks. “I actually consider comedy is likely one of the most vital automobiles for transmitting concepts in a digestible approach. I really like individuals who could make somebody snicker, by doing one thing that’s dumb but in addition tremendous profound. I don’t see them as jokers, I see them as philosophers.”
The view from AG.R97’s studio, courtesy of Luis Neto
Each of AG.R97 counsel {that a} sense of humour, a willingness to not take oneself too critically, is essential to artwork’s expressive potential. This isn’t to counsel that Painwave is a comedy album, however in its sonic extremes they have interaction a plurality of expertise that can’t be captured with austere sounds. It wants large jumps to essentially make sense. It’s there within the movies accompanying the album, which see the pair dressed within the chainmail that adorns Painwave’s cowl. Neto and Pimentel stress it’s meant to be weird – the chainmail not there to straight reference battle or the medieval, a lot as for a way misplaced it’s. To place it one other approach, artists are more and more pressured to current a fastidiously curated picture, AG.R97 push it to the wildest extremes they’ll.
Pimentel: “There’s one thing unusual about presenting your self as probably the most critical factor on this planet. It’s unhuman. It’s unrelatable, it’s not actual expertise. For the longest time that’s what I assumed I needed to do. I had the intuition that if one thing’s humorous, it’s incorrect, that I can’t do this.
“Every part we’re speaking about can cease making sense in two years,” suggests Neto. “An important factor is letting go. Not wanting on the previous. There’s one thing bittersweet about nostalgia. The previous might be stunning in your head. We have now a phrase in Portuguese for this, “saudade”, nostalgic longing that’s throughout all the pieces in Portugal. However I believe letting go is evolving. Should you’re at all times OK and nothing is altering, you’re both loopy or afraid of change. Life is difficult as a musician, it’s exhausting as an artist. The least you are able to do is create some chaos, some curiosity, one thing to sit up for.”
AG.R97’s new album Painwave is out now by way of Turva
