THE RIVERS OF THE COMMUNITY
Viseu Dão Lafões

Poetic-musical and multimedia performance
Part of the Folhas Soltas event – 18th Vouzela Book Fair

Sax on the Road + Binaural Nodar
April 29th, 2026
Vouzela Municipal Library (Espaço Vouzelar)

The territory of the Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community, comprising fourteen municipalities in the Central Region, includes a wide variety of rivers belonging to the Douro, Vouga, and Mondego river basins. In 2023, the project “The Rivers of the Community – Viseu Dão Lafões” was launched, selecting 14 rivers and streams within the territory — Alfusqueiro, Castelo, Coja, Cabanas, Carapito, Dão, Dinha, Mau, Mondego, Paiva, Pavia, Sátão, Sul, and Vouga — which were extensively documented by the Binaural Nodar team through soundscapes, interviews, and video recordings.

In 2024, a phase of poetic and musical research was undertaken, resulting in a collaboration between Binaural Nodar and the group Sax on the Road, formed by António Manuel Ramos and Dolores Spínola. From this partnership emerged a poetic-musical and multimedia performance, as well as an album featuring 14 original tracks, presented for the first time in November 2025.

Subsequently, the show “The Rivers of the Community – Viseu Dão Lafões” was presented in Vouzela, combining the reading of poems by Luís Costa, coordinator of Binaural Nodar, with the musical performance of the group Sax on the Road. The sound component incorporated excerpts from soundscapes and ethnographic recordings made throughout the project, while each track was accompanied by video projections edited by Liliana Silva using footage captured along the various rivers and streams of the region.

ARTISTIC AND TECHNICAL CREDITS:

Original concept: Luís Costa
Ethnographic research: Ana Margarida Ferreira, Nely Ferreira, Liliana Silva, and Luís Costa
Poetic texts: Luís Costa
Musical performance: Sax on the Road (Dolores Spínola and António Manuel Ramos)
Audiovisual editing: Liliana Silva
Production and communication: Binaural Nodar
Partners: Municipality of Vouzela, Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community, and the European Tramontana Network.

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