Contigo

There’s something megalomanous about this debut record by Pedro Branco.
It’s as if he is starting his journey with a tribute album, full of colaborators and small luxuries. But the excentricty is fully justified. Although the general public is not familiar with him, Pedro is not exactly a rookie. A teacher and a songwiter, he has a long career behing him, even if so far that career has been confined to a discreet circle. Only now, in this relatively exuberant way, Pedro reveals himself to the world, with the ingredients of a big bang, as all of this material had been compressed, only now finding an opportunity to expand itself.
Maybe the fact that he is José Mário Branco’s son has inhibited him from recording a record before. He carries a heavy legacy. And Contigo makes it clear that that legacy also reveals itself musically: not only on the voice’s timber but also on the type of arrangements and even on the explicit liasion to the stage and to the word.
The record is built like a show. The musical moments alternate with the reading of stories by Manuela de Freitas, José Luís Outono, Júlio Machado Vaz, Rui Chafes, José Fanha and Alexandre Honrado. And as the record progresses many guests show up to lend it some new colours: João Afonso, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ana Lains, Yara Gutkin, Beatriz Portugal, Carlos Alberto Moniz and even the [choir] Coro de Santo Amaro de Oeiras are some of them.