Leonardo Pinto, who first appeared on stage with his project Thispage at 15 years old, is affectionately nicknamed “da Vinci” by Rita Braga and Rui Reininho for his drive to master various arts. Besides music, he also dabbles in drawing, following the DIY (“do it yourself”) philosophy with self-published editions.
The young artist recalls being invited by Casa Varela for a residency, initially only with musician Rui Reininho. He admits being “stunned” when he received the call while having lunch at his grandmother’s home.
“It is a great honor to be part of this project with two masters of music. Listening to the stories, the conversations, the dinners, and the worlds is wonderful,” said the musician to the press.
After more than a week of artistic residency at Casa Varela and with the concert set for Friday at the municipal auditorium, Rui Reininho describes the 17-year-old, who balances the residency with his senior year of high school, as a “Florentine” (Renaissance artists from Florence).
“He is a young man who approaches various art forms and doesn’t limit himself to one or two dimensions. We should not talk about Leonardo just as a musician but as an entity,” he stated.
The GNR vocalist perceives Leonardo Pinto as an “aesthete, with scenographic capacity, a vision of the beyond, and a fine rear-view mirror for looking back, with knowledge.”
“It is very rare. I see an entire generation obsessed [with the phone], and I think this wonderful creature is nearly astronautical. He went to space. Views us from above, views us from below,” he added.
Referring to a spatial dimension, for Pombal, the GNR vocalist also brought his solo project “20,000 Éguas Submarinas” (which Leonardo has a particular interest in), his gongs, and his more experimental side.
The three musicians from different generations arrived at Casa Varela on November 17, following some exploratory talks before the artistic residency.
On Friday, one song from each musician will be played, but the concert will primarily focus on the original songs they created at the Pombal municipal structure located between the Arunca River and the railway tracks.
The beginning — “frightening,” says Reininho — was unlocked through improvisation among the three.
“There’s a song aspect and an experimentalism aspect,” said Rita Braga.
On stage, in a minimalist setting, they will be accompanied by various instruments: guitar, bass, synthesizers, bottles, adufes, melodica, ukulele (a constant presence in Rita’s career), a drum machine, and “a pension box,” adds Rui Reininho, noting that “no great sound comes from it.”
“Each day grows and improves,” emphasizes Rita Braga, who joined what was initially to be a duo but which Reininho believed could benefit from her inclusion.
The meeting of the three was easy, they recount.
“It’s about listening to others and giving space,” says Rui, pointing out Leonardo as a musician who embodies both maturity and innocence, with whom the other two speak freely.
The rehearsals mainly take place in the afternoon since Leonardo still has classes and tries to balance these two distinct worlds — so far, he’s only missed one class, “but it was justified,” he notes.
A day before the presentation, the GNR musician believes that Friday’s concert, which will later be broadcast on RTP and released on disc, “might just be something really interesting.”
Rui Reininho states that, although they’re a trio and lean towards the experimental, they won’t be on stage like “some Young Gods [a Swiss industrial rock trio]” but rather, perhaps, something akin to embroidery that lies between song and experimentalism, classifying the young Pombal artist’s music as “folk punk rendeiro.”
Looking ahead, Leonardo hopes to finish high school and pursue animation — perhaps in Lisbon — while balancing it with music.
“We need to know various things and do a thousand and one things – be a Renaissance man,” he expressed.
