Musician Fausto Bordalo Diaz dies

The musician and composer Fausto, creator of “Por Este Rio Acima”, died this Monday in Lisbon at the age of 75, his artistic agent told Lusa.

“Fausto Bordalo Dias died this evening at his home after a long illness,” a spokesman for the Ao Sul do Mundo agency said.

Carlos Fausto Bordalo Gómez Díaz was born on November 26, 1948, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, on board a ship called Pátria, bound for Angola, where he spent his childhood and youth and began to become interested in music, absorbing African rhythms, which he combined with the rhythms and modes of Portuguese folk music. traditions. However, his first band was part of the pop movement of the 60s and was called Os Rebeldes.

He settled in Lisbon in 1968, when he enrolled at the former Higher Institute of Social Sciences and Politics of Ultramarina, now ISCSP – University of Lisbon, to obtain a degree in Social and Political Sciences.

Joining the associative movement brought him closer to composers such as José Afonso, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, Manuel Freire, and later José Mário Branco and Luís Silla, who were already living in exile.

It was during this time that he recorded “Chora, amigo chora”, which in 1969 won him the Revelation Award in the old radio program Página Um, broadcast by Rádio Renascença.

“Pro que Der e Vier” (1974) and “Beco sem Saída” (1975) are his first two works, marked by revolutionary experiences.

They were followed by “Madrugada dos Trapeiros” (1977), which includes the song “Rosalinda”, “Histórias de Viajeiros” (1979), which now opens with “Por Este Rio Acima” (1982), his great success, inspired by the work of Fernand Mendes Pinto “Peregrinasan”.

For the film Para Além das Cordilleras (1989) he received the José Afonso Award.

“O Despertar dos Alquimistas”, “A Preto e Branco”, “Chronicles of the Burning Land” are his other albums.

In 2003 he wrote The Magic Opera of Cantor Maldito (2003), a look at the history of Portugal after April 25.

In 2009, together with José Mário Branco and Sérgio Godinho, he performed the show “Três Cantos” about the repertoire of the three musicians, which later gave rise to the album of the same name.

“With Fausto it’s a journey through the universe of sounds, collective memory, the deepest feeling that unites us as communities,” says the page dedicated to the musician.