Gótico Português, Glockenwise’s fifth studio album, is now available on all digital platforms. The release marks the start of the new label, Vida Vã, created by the collective.
Glockenwise were formed on the margin. On the geographical margin, in Barcelos, a small industrial city in Minho, where the idea of going through life yearning to make music – or any other art, for that matter – was, still in the 2000s, relatively exotic; and on the aesthetic margin, forged in the non-conformist energy of punk, always punctuated by a characteristic melancholy that has served as a common thread until the present sound identity, and that has been demarcating them from more obvious classifications. In the beginning, escaping from the margin was a powerful incentive to make music, and was the fundamental theme of the associated lyricism – “How to get out? Out of this town?” they sang in Columbine.
Portuguese Gothic is, if not a return, an appreciative look at the margin. There is a Portugal simmering on the shore, abundant in interesting and bizarre cultural manifestations, rich and diverse in visual and oral traditions. Oneiric, creative, and surprising. There is a forgotten Portugal on the margin, thirsty for representation but obstinate, that rolls itself up to inventively occupy the void left by material, cultural and metaphysical deprivation. For Glockenwise, almost as if by epiphany, the parallel between this voluntarist and creative attitude – which goes from the pottery of Rosa Ramalho to the blessings of Alexandrina de Balazar – and the culture of Do It Yourself music, which allowed them to transgress the limits that seemed imposed from the start, became clear.
Themes about the identity of those in the middle distance, divided between the margin and the center, written for uncertain times that require even more songs.
The first concerts are already scheduled: Courage Club in Guimarães (February 18), Carmo 81 in Viseu (March 24), Gretua in Aveiro (March 25), Culturgest in Lisbon (May 12), gnration in Braga (May 20), and Plano B in Porto (July 1).
