THE RIVERS OF THE COMMUNITY
Viseu Dão Lafões

Binaural Nodar + Sax on the Road

Premiere of a poetic-musical and multimedia show
Book presentation + 2 CDs

Saturday, 22 November at 9 p.m.
Cine-Teatro João Ribeiro (Vouzela, Portugal)

The Portuguese territory of the Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community, formed by fourteen municipalities in the central region, comprises a wide variety of rivers, framed from north to south by three main river basins: the Douro, the Vouga and the Mondego. These three rivers and their tributaries (such as the Paiva and the Dão) even define some of the boundaries between municipalities and, consequently, part of the map of the Viseu Dão Lafões intermunicipal community itself.

The riverside landscapes are therefore both natural and cultural realities, and each riverside village, each bend in the river and each tributary, however small, helps to define the specific “spirit of the place” of each of the countless communities that make up a region.

As such, Binaural Nodar has dedicated a significant part of its work in recent years to the relationship between water and rural communities, taking into account the traditional knowledge linked to the careful management of this resource and the lessons that can be passed on to new generations, in light of the increasing complexity of natural resource management in the contemporary world.

In 2023, the project “The Rivers of Community – Viseu Dão Lafões” was launched, consisting of the selection of 14 rivers and streams, which were chosen to include both some of the smaller streams and the main rivers that help define the geography of the territory and cross several municipalities: Alfusqueiro, Castelo, Coja, Cabanas, Carapito, Dão, Dinha, Mau, Mondego, Paiva, Pavia, Sátão, Sul and Vouga. Each of these river contexts was extensively documented by the Binaural Nodar team in terms of soundscapes, interviews with local communities and video recordings.

Following this research work, a phase of poetic and musical research began, which materialised in a collaboration between Binaural Nodar’s team and the musical group Sax on the Road, formed by António Manuel Ramos and Dolores Spínola, which is based in a small village in the municipality of Vouzela.

On 22 November, at 9 p.m., the poetic-musical and multimedia show “The Rivers of the Community – Viseu Dão Lafões” will premiere in Vouzela, in which poems dedicated to the rivers and streams of the Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community will be read by their author, Luís Costa, coordinator of Binaural Nodar, alongside musical accompaniment (guitar, saxophone, percussion, sound objects and electronics) by the Sax on the Road group. The musical accompaniment will be based on a “sound bed” composed of excerpts from soundscapes and ethnographic collections made throughout the project. Each theme will also be accompanied by a video projection edited by Liliana Silva, based on footage shot on each of the rivers and streams in the territory.

As part of the same event, a book about the project will be presented, including photographs of the selected rivers and streams, the texts of the poems and two CDs with the poetic-musical themes dedicated to the 14 rivers and streams in the territory of Viseu Dão Lafões.

This show and the book + 2 CDs are also part of the activities of the Tramontana Network, co-financed by the Creative Europe programme.

Binaural Nodar is a cultural organization supported by the Portuguese Republic – Culture, Youth, and Sports | Directorate-General for the Arts.