Domínio Total do Espectro

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Domínio Total do Espectro is the debut album by Criptobanda Musical de Paradela do Rio, released in September 2025 on tape and digital formats by Favela Discos. The album is available for streaming, download, and purchase through Favela Discos’ Bandcamp page.

This release also includes three stunning music videos, filmed on the slopes surrounding the Paradela dam:

Capricho Necrofuturista:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1naoGkfBJ20

Decomposição em Marcha:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjleIMjX6iU

Raparigas de Paradela:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrNYO9WpG4g


To support the promotion of this product, I also selected a few shareable passages from my diary that capture the spirit of certain compositions, which were published on Favela Discos' social media.

Ecos do Fundo da Rua
“(...) a portrait of the soundscape of Rua do Fundo da Rua, a fabric woven from overlapping layers, inspired by the long practice sessions of our musicians. More contemplative than the first piece, it begins with a sequence repeated by the tuba players, until suddenly a group of flutes and clarinets joins in rehearsal. In the distance, a steady drumbeat emerges, setting the pulse of this accidental music.”

Festa no Bairro da Barragem
“Here are evoked the legendary celebrations that once set the neighborhood ablaze, when the bodies and spirits of neighbors and strangers alike merged to the same measure until daybreak… measure that strictly governs the predictable pulse and monotonous cadence of this entire piece. This singular interpretation reflects the rigor, spirit of sacrifice, and sense of duty of these musicians, for whom the pride of representing this institution outweighs all other considerations.”

Podridão Cinzenta
“For Podridão Cinzenta, I asked our virtuoso brass players to improvise a counterpoint between the disease caused by the fungus Botrytis Cinerea, which has been attacking our gardens and orchards, and the necrosis of these ruins left by HICA (...) scattered randomly along the hillside paths, where the most exposed patches of concrete have already crumbled into crusts and dust, spreading like spores over the forest’s fallen mantle.”

Descargas
"The recording that closes side A is dedicated to our rivals, who do not deserve to be named here. It is a work of the highest technical demand, brilliantly performed, and whose execution will surely remain beyond the reach of those epigones. Descargas stands as an affirmation of the superiority of the musicians and repertoire of the Criptobanda Musical of Paradela do Rio, where there are no chairs for the impotent, nor music stands for the banal."

Fervença
"Working in this place with such exceptional musicians has been a deeply enriching experience. At Fervença, I find the perfect image for my journey with this ensemble: just as the waterfall shapes the rocks with its current, so too does our work erode and reshape the identity of Paradela. (...) It is an allegory of the transformative power of music, charting this progress in a long accelerando, rising all the way to the pinnacle of sublimation."

Retrovectorização
"In the American variety of the Portuguese language, vectorização was the term used for the practice of teaching and refining birdsong, vital for their reproduction and territorialization. This interlude, the most serene and restrained piece of the whole set, is a tribute to our colleagues in the Department of Ornithology, who, through their tireless labor, record, transcribe, and refine the melodies and counter-melodies of the living score that are the birds of these common lands."



Album Notes:

Paradela do Rio, June 1, 1956

These times of dams mark a true new era for the world. One of these days, in school, the teacher will point to the map and say:
- Before the Reservoirzoic Period, this was Barroso.

Miguel Torga, in Diário VIII

Still taking its first steps, the Criptobanda Musical of Paradela do Rio emerged from the will of the people of Paradela, where it is based. This cassette, recorded in the heart of the Paradela Dam Neighborhood, includes 9 pieces composed exclusively for the institution and presents the result of its first year of work under the musical direction of David Ole.

The compositions are inspired by the history and daily life of the village, whose traditional character has been disfigured over time: from plundering and occupation by French troops in the 19th century, through the arrival of thousands of workers for the construction of the dam in the 1950s, to the subsequent massive rural exodus and, more recently, the settling of a group of musicians, artists, and thinkers seeking to redefine its place on the contemporary cultural map.

The Criptobanda Musical of Paradela do Rio promotes the effective acceleration of this long process of submission and erosion of Paradela’s identity, acting as a catalyst for its social, cultural, and economic transformation.

Its musical practice is centered on the Neoharmonic doctrine: an aesthetic in which tension and instability are prolonged over time, subverted by a logic of saturation and dispersion that rejects centers and returns, abolishing the stability promised by the dominant chord — the structural pillar of tonal music that stages an illusion of return, belonging, and home.

The music contained in this cassette radically deconstructs the popular tradition of band music, dissolving it into unstable textures and erratic movements derived from the manipulation and distortion of the sound spectrum.

Album Credits:
FD074

Recorded in the Paradela do Rio Dam Neighborhood (Montalegre (Vila Real (Portugal))).

Recording: David Machado
Design: Diana Wellington
Photography: Dora Vieira


Acknowledgments:
Acendalha
Carolina Carvalho
Diogo Jesus
Energias de Portugal, SA
Mariya Nesvyetaylo