The first recording of the project Alforjs, “Jengi”, gave us the idea that, if there’s an urban shamanism, the origins of this magical practice of invocation through music are in the African forests and the Mongolian steppes. A shaman music of the city could only include elements of those ancient world views. In this new album, the Lisbon trio formed by Mestre André, Bernardo Álvares and Raphael Soares gives this a higher evidence: we hear the Baka pigmies behind the obsessive-compulsive beat of the drums and the knife-cutting arpeggios of the double bass, alluding also the krautrock band Can, and we recognize in this hypnotic and enchanting music the spirits of Saint John Coltrane (very present in the interventions of the tenor saxophone), of Lemmy during the times of the psychedelic collective Hawkwind and also of the still very alive Steven Stapleton with the electro-acoustic and industrial Nurse With Wound format. Ritualistic, tribal, neo-primitivist and retro-futurist, Alforjs has a very special place among what is out there of more intriguing and radical in this final stretch of the 21^st century’s second decade.

All music by Alforjs

Recorded by Alforjs at Bruxa Teatro, Évora, December 2015 | MIxed and mastered by André and Luis Lucena | Cover art by Teresa Milheiras | Cover art photography by Sérgio Vieira
Produced by Alforjs | Executive production by Travassos for Trem Azul | Design by Travassos