All colors in Cuadru Pintado by Carmen Souza

After ten recorded albums, he believes that along the way, in the company of Theo Pascal, he has developed and reached an interesting maturity. “Themes come up a lot for both of us. There is a lot of research between us. We challenge ourselves with sound and look for new things, I use my voice in a different way, he develops the production and the bass. .Ten albums have been released with many fruits, not only in terms of travel, we have traveled almost the whole world with our music, and this is a huge blessing, but also happiness and personal fulfillment. And the feeling that there is still so much to do, ”says Carmen Souza, about a path that was chosen very calmly.

Interconnectedness, Carmen Souza’s latest album, was recorded during the pandemic. “It’s a bit of a hybrid album because Theo and I were stuck in Lisbon and then, on the second half of the album, we were stuck in London,” says Carmen, who at the time decided to seize the moment. study. “Since concert dates have been cancelled, we decided to explore what we liked. Theo went to study innovation in manufacturing in London, and I went to study German and French. The title of the album comes from a movie I saw. on the course A film in German by Fatih Akin called Auf der anderen seite (On the other side, in the Portuguese edition). All the main characters were connected but never crossed, not knowing that they were close to each other while looking for each other . It made sense, especially at a time when we were going through a pandemic. We were all interconnected, due to the fact that we were experiencing something so serious and new in the whole world that we didn’t even know how to react to the obligation to be at home, to the inability to see people we care about, the inability to play and the inability to do what we love, which is to play live. All this became the theme of the entire album. We needed a human connection, because we did not have it. But that seems to have dissipated quickly. Now we are more and more “machine”, we are more connected through social networks, instead of discussing things here, with each other, truly sharing a life,” emphasizes Carmen Souza.

One of the songs on the album is “Kuadru Pintadu” in which all of humanity is part of a picture with all colors and different cultures. “All this contributes to this picture full of colors and beauty. With a twist, it’s a sound picture. All our languages ​​are part of a harmonious orchestra, without dissonance, without wars. Where there is a lot of respect, connection and love. This is ‘Kuadru Pintadu'” , says the singer, who performed in Cape Verde at the Sal Kriol Jazz Festival in July. He gave a concert where he performed the last album, as well as the previous album The Silver Messengers, dedicated to Horace Silver, a jazz musician with a Cape Verdean father and an American mother, who excelled in the United States as a pianist and composer. With records like Song for My Father or The Cape Verdean Blues. “I already missed playing in Cape Verde. I come from there, my music is almost all sung in Creole. I spend my life giving concerts abroad, singing Creole abroad, in Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal too. . So it’s good to be back home. To feel in the arms of the people of Cape Verde,” says Carmen Sousa, who continues the summer with a busy schedule of concerts in Europe and Portugal.