Joana Guerra & Yaw Tembe - Orogénese LP

“Born from an invitation for an artistic residency at the
Lisbon venue Damas during the deconfinement
period, this conjuration formed by Joana Guerra and
Yaw Tembe has been following up on that first duo
encounter, through a continued craft at an unhurried
pace that has ‘Orogénese’ as its first perennial record.
Released by Facada Records, ‘Orogénese’ takes its
name from the geological process of mountain
formation and rejuvenation as a guide for music that
evokes tectonic movements and the spirits they
unleash, counterflow to the impatience of our times.
Using a wide range of instruments, including the
trumpet, enchanting voices, evocative cello lines,
various percussions and solemn traces of
electronics, keyboards, flutes or field recordings,
the eight pieces of ‘Orogenése’ flow in a slow,
breathy past, as if rescuing from silence and
memory an eternal present of sounds that project
possible futures, full of lyricism and infused with an
aura of mystery. An almost impressionistic album,
made possible only through an organic complicity
between two artists whose recognizable work
across multiple fronts has been marked by a keen
and honest curiosity in how they explore paths
previously unfathomed, revealing them under a
light entirely their own. ‘Orogénese’ discovers the
sound hidden in the apparent stillness of the
“imperfect temporal continuum,” in the land and in
the ghosts, pasts and futures that dwell here.”