Flores: Fajã de Lopo Vaz

We are staying in Lajes, the same town I stayed in the last time I was here. We found a great hike nearby that I didn’t know about before, at a place called Fajã de Lopo Vaz. The word fajã refers to a flat place along the coast, caused by a landslide or a lava field extending out from the base of some cliffs toward the water. Most of these islands have coastlines made up of steep cliffs that plummet directly into the ocean; there aren’t so many beaches, natural harbors, or flat coastal areas where you could easily build a town or raise crops. This is especially true on Flores. So a place where this occurs is significant, because it means you can live within easy access of the ocean, which makes boats useful for coming and going, fishing, etc. Many of the towns in the islands are built on a fajã, and include the word in their name.

Our hike led us on a very steep trail down the cliffs to this particular fajã, which consists of a rocky black sand beach stretching between two points that jut dramatically out from the cliffs into the sea. Apparently this area was an early settlement on Flores, and there are still a few tiny houses that people maintain and occupy during summer months. There are also ancient walled fields, a few cows that seem quite content, and old gardens of bananas and taro root. This area is only accessible by boat or by the same steep, narrow trail that we used; I can’t quite imagine how you’d get building materials in here, let alone cows. The views are stunning going either up or down the trail, and when you get to the bottom the beach is likely to be deserted. The overall feeling is that of stepping back in time.

Leaving São Miguel

After the conference ended, we had a couple of days on the island to explore, since Mary had never been here before. We hit some of the usual sites that I've mentioned previously. The big hit of course was Furnas, with its amazing garden and hot mineral pools. In fact, our timing for the latter was impeccable. We got there just before noon, and by the time we'd finished walking through the garden most of the tourists had left for lunch, so we had the small pools entirely to ourselves. And it never rained on us. As you can see, Mary was very happy about it.

On Monday we had a very nice farewell dinner at Nuno's house, with his Argentinian friend Luciano, my friend Emanuel, fellow artist Robin, and Mary and I. It was a lovely evening, and also a little sad. We had formed a little family of sorts, and I will truly miss Nuno and Emanuel. Staying at Nuno's house and getting to know him was perhaps the biggest unexpected bonus of the whole residency. We have good friends here, and it's hard to leave them.

Nuno's kitchen.

One of Nuno's large drawings in his studio.

On Monday and Tuesday night we stayed in Ponta Delgada, at an apartment owned by new friends Gabriela Sales and Rui Teixeira. They live in São Vicente on the north coast, near Diana, and I had met them before at a party at Diana's house. They came to the performance and loved it, and very kindly offered to let us stay in their guest apartment in town in exchange for a CD of my piece. On our final night they invited us over to their house for dinner. Gabriela made a very good fish soup (which she insisted was horrible) and other yummy things, and we loved talking with them about all manner of things. Very interesting, smart, and funny people who we thoroughly enjoyed getting to know better and look forward to seeing again someday.

Now, on to Flores!

Invisible Places

The Invisible Places conference was good, if a little overwhelming. There were so many talks and activities, and I'm afraid it's all a bit of a blur. Also, Mary arrived on the first day of the conference so I missed out on some papers I would have loved to hear that day because I was picking her up at the airport and getting her situated in Ribeira Grande. (Some papers that I especially liked were those by Stephen Roddy, Hugo Branco, Paul Tourle, Andy McGraw, Angeliki Diakrousi, and Hildegard Westerkamp's moving keynote talk, which you can watch here even though it is incorrectly titled.) I also had rehearsals with my musicians on the first two nights, so missed out on many of the evening social gatherings, which apparently went on until the wee hours. I was especially sorry to miss a surprise concert by Peter Cusack in the same small church where we heard Medeiros/Lucas a couple weeks ago. The resident artists all gave short talks on Saturday, and I spoke a bit about my project then.

L-R: Raquel Castro, Robin Parmar, SP, Yannick Guéguen, Jen Reimer, Max Stein, Cláudia Martinho. Photo: André Mestre/Invisible Places.

The performance of my piece was the final event of the entire conference. I was very pleased with how it turned out. The musicians I had been working with for the previous two weeks really formed into a solid group and did a fantastic job. It was a pleasure getting to know them and working together to build an ensemble and a new version of the piece, and to present it here in the Azores to the people for whom it was made. (You can listen to it here.) The audience was large and appreciative, and I got some very nice feedback from people who found it quite moving. The entire experience was incredibly gratifying, and certainly one of the most meaningful and significant events of my entire life. My deepest obrigado again to Raquel Castro, Diana Diegues, and all of the musicians for making it happen.

Now, who's gonna book that inter-islands tour?

Lagoa Do Fogo

Today was the first really gorgeous, sunny, rain-free day we've had since I arrived. Robin and I decided to rent a car so we could get out and about more easily, and it was absolutely worth it. First stop was Lagoa do Fogo (Lake of Fire), which I tried to visit the last time I was here but missed due to weather. As you can see, it's pretty stunning — a large lake in the bottom of an ancient volcano. It's about a 30-minute hike down a fairly steep trail to get to the water from the road, and we were definitely tired on the trip back up. But it was absolutely worth the effort.





This last photo shows a small concrete jetty on which I lay in the sun like a contended cat, listening to the gentle splashes and splooshes all around my head. I pretty much felt like I could have died right then and it would have been just fine.



This recording gives a pretty good idea of what it sounded like, although it's actually a composite of three separate recordings: one on each side of the jetty, and one with the recorder stuck down a hole in the concrete jetty, which you can just make out in the photo. That last part isn't entirely realistic, as I would have had to be laying with my ear in the hole to hear all those really low gurgling sounds. But the feeling is right. In the background you can also hear the many gulls and terns which nest here.

spnonseq · Lagoa Do Fogo

After we climbed back up we drove to the town of Vila Franca do Campo, which was the original capitol of São Miguel until 1522, when it was wiped out by an earthquake and mud slide that killed about 5000 people. It was due to this and some other earthquakes that followed that the previously-mentioned romeiros began their pilgrimages during Lent, walking counter clockwise around the island and visiting all of the churches to atone for whatever may have caused these disasters. This tradition is still carried on in the US. We've seen or heard at least one group of romeiros each day since we arrived, and I love hearing them sing/pray as they pass through the main street of town. Here's an excerpt of a recording made as they passed by our house at 5 AM. You can hear them slowly approaching over the sound of a neighbor's TV blaring from across the street.

spnonseq · Romeiros #4

Meet the Band

We had our first rehearsal last Monday night. It was a bit rough, but that's always to be expected the first time through. Afterwards, I went home and re-wrote the timeline/chart we are using as a score, translating it into Portuguese and adding notes for each section to clarify/solidify the ideas we discussed in rehearsal.

Last night was the second rehearsal, and with the new chart things went much better. The band members now have a clearer understanding of what happens in each section, so they can focus more on playing and less on trying to remember what they are supposed to do. I'm quite confident that with two more rehearsals they will have it all worked out.

The musicians are all really nice folks who are making a serious effort on this crazy piece. Some of them play jazz, but I don't think most are very experienced with this kind of improvisation, so it's maybe a bit of a stretch for some of them. But they are open-minded and enthusiastic, which counts for a lot. Also, the sections of the piece that refer to traditional Azorean music are working out great because they have that stuff in their blood. I really appreciate their willingness to make the time for this, rearrange their work schedules, stay out late on work nights, etc. – for the sake of the experience, and no pay. Yet another example of Azorean generosity!

BUSTED! L-R: José Medeiros (trombone), Gianna De Toni (bass), Carlos Miguel Mendes (tenor sax), Luís Senra (tenor sax), Carlos Medeiros Carlos (clarinet), Nuno Carreiro (trumpet)

In other good news, I was able to re-make the opening sequence of the piece. It starts out with the bubbling thermal mud pits at Furnas. But when I was there before it was in summer and very crowded, and I didn't get such good recordings because of all the human noise, so that section was shorter than I would like, felt like it ended before it really got going. But the other day we made a field trip and went to Furnas around 8 PM when there was almost nobody there, so I was able to make some new recordings and used those to make a longer opening sequence. It only adds about 40 seconds to the piece, but I think it's a stronger beginning, a bit more "primal."

Also on that field trip we visited a tea plantation where I encountered many goats, who love to walk between the rows of tea plants scratching their sides along the plants as they go. After all of our recording adventures we ate some fish in Porto Formoso, a very sweet little town on the beach.

Here's a video by my housemate/fellow resident artist Robin Parmar that gives a taste of that day's field trip.

Three Dances from Robin Parmar on Vimeo.