The Strings of São Domingos, by The Ano Nobo Quartet

The Strings of São Domingos

by The Ano Nobo Quartet

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Includes a digital PDF booklet.

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Luxurious matte-finish gatefold double LP with a high quality booklet including photos of the band's recording sessions and aged photos from lead singer Pascoal's storied past.

Pressed at 45 RPM.

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All EU / UK / Worldwide orders ship from Germany.

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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Luxurious matte-finish single CD with a high quality booklet including photos of the band's recording sessions and aged photos from lead singer Pascoal's storied past.

All US & Canada orders ship from the US.
All EU / UK / Worldwide orders ship from Germany.

Includes unlimited streaming of The Strings of São Domingos via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

Purchasable with gift card

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T-Shirt/Shirt + Digital Album
The Ano Nobo Quartet logo printed on a vintage white Rocker tee.

Printed into the fabric, so there's no sticky feeling of the print.

All worldwide orders of this tee will be dispatched form Germany.

• 100% combed ring-spun organic cotton
• Free of harmful chemicals
• Fair Trade / Fair Wear product
• Made and printed in Germany

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Comes in S, M, L, and XL!

Includes unlimited streaming of The Strings of São Domingos via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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Bundle and save! Worldwide shipping included!

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This bundle ships worldwide from Germany only.

This is a pre-order.

Includes unlimited streaming of The Strings of São Domingos via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

Purchasable with gift card

$54.99 USD or more
Bundle and save! Worldwide shipping included!

LIMITED to 80 bundles.

This bundle ships worldwide from Germany only.

This is a pre-order :)

Includes unlimited streaming of The Strings of São Domingos via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 5 days

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Full Digital Discography

18

releases

Get all 18 Ostinato Records releases available on Bandcamp and save 40%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Jantra Remixed, Harmonizing Soweto: Golden City Gospel & Kasi Soul from the new South Africa, Synthesized Sudan: Astro-Nubian Electronic Jaglara Dance Sounds from the Fashaga Underground, Mogadishu's Finest: The Al-Uruba Sessions, Beja Power! Electric Soul & Brass from Sudan's Red Sea Coast, The Strings of São Domingos, (Djibouti Archives Vol. 1) Super Somali Sounds from the Gulf of Tadjoura, The Dancing Devils of Djibouti, and 10 more. , and , .

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1.	Intro 00:26		buy track
2.	Sociedad di Mocindadi 02:48		buy track
3.	Tio Bernar 03:37	info	buy track
4.	Badia di Fora 03:44		buy track
5.	Maria Cze Bu Tem 03:56		buy track
6.	Canta Ku Alma Magoado 03:07	info	buy track
7.	Interlúdio 00:21		buy track
8.	Elefantes 02:32	info	buy track
9.	Mie Fogo 04:15		buy track
10.	Mulatinha Vai 03:10		buy track
11.	Interlúdio do Mar 00:45		buy track
12.	Pascoal's Baixo 00:56		buy track
13.	Lolinha 03:47		buy track
14.	Interlúdio 00:52		buy track
15.	Tio Bernar (Alternativa) 05:25	info	buy track

about

“It feels as if they could play forever” — Financial Times
on.ft.com/35orPO3

"The Ano Nobo Quartet embody the Creole sound of Cape Verde—via Havana and East Berlin!" — Uncut Magazine

“Appreciate the mastery with the guitar” — El Pais
bit.ly/3Hhr4DA

“Beautiful and intense… an essential acquisition” — Vinyl District
bit.ly/3JOelKg

“Shimmering acoustic music… a spontaneous, dynamic, and very real sound” — Backseat Mafia
bit.ly/3BQdpC9

A feature on the album in Worldwide FM:
bit.ly/3pezXrd

————————————

In the small inland town of São Domingos on Cape Verde's Santiago Island, The Ano Nobo Quartet delivers a fresh take on Koladera, a guitar-driven, subtly rhythmic sound of a lighter spirit. Their sound tells a global story with Cape Verde at its center, a creole melting pot in the middle of the Atlantic attracting the best from four continents: hypnotic, haunting Koladera guitars inflected with twangs of Salsa Cubano, Spanish Flamenco, Brazilian Samba Canção, Jamaican Reggae, Argentine Tango, Mozambican Marrabenta, and finished with a dash of Black American Blues. It’s all here. Absent percussion, the quartet’s sound still drips with rhythm. Rich, raw acoustic music you can dance to.

This album was recorded in early 2021 in three locations on Santiago Island: at homes, by the ocean, and on the volcanic hills of Cape Verde. Each location used a mobile recording studio equipped with different mics placed near and far to capture both the Spanish and Chinese-made guitars and the natural environment that shapes the saudade, a melancholic longing, of Koladera. Each space has its own atmosphere heard in the interludes.

A double LP pressed at 45 RPM for an even silkier listening experience and packaged in a luxurious matte-laminated gatefold with a high quality 12-page booklet along with a hardcover bookcase CD with a 24-page booklet.

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In 1989, as the Berlin Wall collapsed in front of the world’s eyes, a burly soldier from Cabo Verde stood on the East German side. Nicknamed “El Bruto” or “The Brute” because of his “brutally” good prowess on the guitar, Pascoal watched the end of an era in full uniform, the ever dutiful soldier. As a member of the FARP, the armed wing of Cabo Verde’s independence struggle, which was backed by the Soviet Union, Pascoal was dispatched the world over—from Cuba to Crimea to East Berlin.

Being stationed in Cuba gave him access to a world of guitar music. His stints in the Caribbean and the Crimean Peninsula were alongside soldiers from elsewhere in Lusophone Africa and the former colonized world. Not required on the battlefield, these military postings became cultural gatherings and, quite simply, jam sessions, where sounds and techniques were exchanged.

Today, along with fellow guitar maestros, Fany, Nono, and Afrikanu, Pascoal leads The Ano Nobo Quartet, named after Cabo Verde’s most legendary composer, Ano Nobo, Pascoal’s mentor and father to the rest of the group. Till today, Ano Nobo’s face graces murals across the archipelago.

Ostinato Records has delved deep into the sound of this cluster of 11 islands floating 400 miles off the West African coast. Critically acclaimed compilations like Synthesize the Soul, Leite Quente Funaná, and Pour Me A Grog provided three chapters of Cabo Verde’s story: 1980s synthesizer dance music, the 1990s diasporan sound in Europe, and the accordion heavy Funaná sound, all born in the same island of Santiago.

But the Covid-19 pandemic called for a departure in the fourth chapter. A different story needed telling. Pascoal is a soldier, able to weather hardship, adapt, and maintain a clear-eyed focus. In short, the man to lead a pandemic-era recording that demanded a shorter recording period to lessen the chance of transmission along with abrupt restrictions and limitations on gatherings and recording locations.

The Strings of São Domingos is not only a tribute to Koladera, or Coladeira, a guitar-driven, subtly rhythmic sound of a lighter spirit, but to Pascoal’s rich life history shaped by the Cold War and the legacy of Ano Nobo. But these tracks aren’t your traditional Koladera, the original recipe first cooked up in the island of Fogo and popularized by Cesaria Evora.

The Ano Nobo Quartet’s Koladera is a global story with Cabo Verde at its center, a creole melting pot in the middle of the Atlantic attracting the best from four continents: hypnotic, haunting Koladera guitars inflected with twangs of Salsa Cubano, Spanish Flamenco, Brazilian Samba Canção, Jamaican Reggae, Argentine Tango, Mozambican Marrabenta, and finished with a dash of Black American Blues. It’s all here. Pascoal even picked up a few notes from a group of Chinese guitarists—a traditional instrument in China resembles the cavaquinho—who arrived on a socialist cultural exchange in Cabo Verde. Absent percussion, the quartet’s sound still drips with rhythm.

This album was recorded in three locations on Santiago Island: in Pascoal’s home in São Domingos, the small hometown of Ano Nobo that sits amid the cascading hills of the countryside; in a secluded, remote recording space in the north of the island; and near Santiago’s northern beach cove without any electricity. Each location used a mobile recording studio equipped with different mics placed near and far to capture both the Spanish and Chinese-made guitars and the natural environment that shapes the saudade, a melancholic longing, of Koladera. Each space has its own atmosphere heard in the interludes.

The maiden voyage of our new Ostinato Acoustics series, The Ano Nobo Quartet confirms humanity is at its finest when we break life down to its essential parts and fundamental simplicity. A sound and approach cast from the depths of personal and world history that obliges us to seek humbler ways in the years ahead and hold the delicate yet sharp, serene yet swaying strings of São Domingos as the soundtrack to exit a brutal time, guided by brutally good music from brutally good guitarists.

credits

released February 25, 2022

Recorded & Mixed by Janto Djassi
Produced by Janto Djassi & Vik Sohonie
Mastered by Mike Graves (Osiris Studio)
Design by Pete 'Piwi' White
Special thanks to Antonino Furtado Gomes, Olav Aalberg, Adilson Leal Baessa, Bena Mendes da Veiga, Pousada Cantinho-Achada Leitão & Sir Ramases Kofi
Recorded in São Domingos, Santiago Island, Cabo Verde

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