Transmissions From Down Below

Every Tuesday, premiering on March 12, 2024.

We're proud to finally bring you "Transmissions from Down Below," a live music video series developed by VIC NIC with the support of Aveiro's Municipality. Premiering on March 12, 2024, and airing every Tuesday thereafter, each of the 12 episodes will features intimate live performances and interviews with artists from Aveiro —such as MEMA., Troll's Toy, Diana Combo, Musgos or Ariana Casellas— and artists from elswhere, who chose Aveiro as their homebase —like Sonny Santos (USA) or Santi Lesca (Argentina). Set in the underground cinema of VIC Aveiro Arts House, the series celebrate the diversity of Aveiro's music scene, highlighting local talent and originality, and promising to reveal the freshest sounds and musical innovation from the region. Tune in and enjoy this unique opportunity to experience Aveiro's current alternative musical journey, streaming on VIC NIC's YouTube channel and airing on Canal180, every Tuesday from March 12.

Shot during Covid-19 lockdown with minimal resources, the opening episode of the TFDB live music series focuses on the work of Sonny Santos, also known as @transvansantos345, also known as Mark Matos, also know as Padre Paulo Santo. Singer-songwriter with Azorean roots, Mark Paul Matos was raised within the Portuguese immigrant community of the Bay Area, California. Starting his musical journey in 2003 in Tucson, Texas, under the name Campo Bravo, Matos later returned to the San Francisco area to form other musical projects. The common thread among these projects is a strong affinity for psychedelic folk sounds, intertwined with the exotic vibes of 1960s Tropicália, resulting in a sound both expansive and mystical. This eclectic mix of sonic colours has garnered a cult following worldwide, leading him to stage collaborations with bands such as Smog, Flaming Lips, M. Ward, and Liz Phair. Trans Van Santos, in particular, boasts a rotating lineup, featuring members from renowned bands like Dead Meadow, Iggy and The Stooges, and Brian Jonestown Massacre. Mark Matos, whose songwriting has been compared to luminaries such as Beck and Bob Dylan, has also received praise from celebrities like actor James Franco, with whom he collaborated on the film "I Think You’re Totally Wrong: A Quarrel." Mark visited VIC @aveiroartshouse on several occasions —as a performing musician, resident artist and volunteer— having eventually settled in Aveiro for a few seasons, where he became part of the family, played numerous gigs and founded yet another bizarre music project —Jenny and her Epileptic Dog— together with Hugo Branco. He was also one of the masterminds responsible for the birth of VIC NIC, havinf left behind a delightful trail of friendship, love and deep, liberating thoughts.

* LISTEN TO MARK MATOS * https://padrepaulosanto.bandcamp.com https://markmatososbeaches.bandcamp.com https://lifeisavicnic.bandcamp.com/tr...

For this 2nd episode of the "Transmissions From Down Below" series, director Gabriela Benedeti and production assistant Renata 'Ré' Rodrigues decided to hang old colour photography filters from the ceiling all across our Secret Cinema, looking to experiment with an ultimately analog and physical side of visual effects, which resulted in a unique progression of warm colours and unexpected reflections all across the video. The interview was shot in the cosy living room / workspace at the Arts Residency floor of VIC @aveiroartshouse. Born in Aveiro in 1991, Sofia Marques (aka MEMA.) is a good friend and one of the most talented musicians, composers and producers in town, as far as we're concerned. Delving into guitar and vocal technique studies at the Calouste Gulbenkian Conservatory of Music in Aveiro, she began composing solo pieces and soon found herself recording and performing both in Aveiro and Lisbon, where she lived for two years. In Berlin, as part of the electronic music collective "Strength in Numbers" in 2016, she embarked on her journey as @memamusic_. During her time in Dublin from 2016 to 2019, she collaborated with various local artists and European projects. Experimenting with traditional sounds, she fused pop electronic elements with folk undertones, resulting in her distinct style flavoured with a taste of the sea. Having performed all across the country, in festivals such as Paredes de Coura and at Festival da Canção 2021, MEMA. has released several singles, two EPs and, more recently, the album "Leve​♀​Escuro". Her sinlge "Perdi o Norte" gained recognition on Antena 3's "Rimas e Batidas" and was featured on national radio playlists such as Vodafone FM and Radar FM. Moreover, the track received an honorable mention at the 'Novos Talentos Fnac' 2020 competition.

 * LISTEN TO MEMA. * https://memamusic.bandcamp.com https://open.spotify.com/artist/37aoh...

The 3rd episode of our underground live music series features a project by @dianacombo7703, who has already collaborated with VIC NIC in other projects, having released tracks in two of our compillations, namely "New Chronologies of Sound" sound arts collection, and the "Rajada - Windy Sounds fro Aveiro" co-creation project, where she collaborated with @ariannacasellas6484, who in turn will also be featured in this series. The Síria project joins Diana's voice to the usual practice of combining vinyl records and field recordings, various instruments and other sound sources, giving form to sequences of songs, concepts and other audio material designed for performative contexts. “It happened as if unwittingly, but still desired. I received a proposal to create a version of the song Gloria for a play and then a request to write and sing an original for another play. These events paved the way to the practice of transforming life episodes into texts to be sung. Lyrics and melodies emerged and took shape spontaneously and rapidly, blossoming into the fruits of prolonged thought labour about what seems more banal, or more eminent, or more obscure. Only later were layers of vinyl records added and other recordings were captured to accompany each moment or episode of this serene tidal wave, Cuspo (2018, Cronica).”

* LISTEN TO SÍRIA / DIANA COMBO *
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/bo... https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/cuspo https://lifeisavicnic.bandcamp.com/tr... https://lifeisavicnic.bandcamp.com/tr...

The 4th episode of the "Transmissions From Down Below" series features Troll's Toy, an improv-rock-jazz power trio with strong ties to Aveiro and to our label, VIC NIC, where they released a double LP and a beer-shaped record. Not only are Loura, Gabriel and Martins exceptional musicians, as they are exceptional people with whom we've shared dreams, drinks, worries, bad jokes, long deep talks, mini-tours through degenerate little towns and, of course, an infinite expanse of music. It was, thus, a great pleasure to have them participating in this series, on which they ended up playing one of the most absurdly brutal sessions we've ever heard them perform. HALLELUJAH! --- ABOUT TROLL'S TOY Order and chaos, silence and noise, war and peace. Gabriel Neves (Tenor Saxophone), João Martins (Drums and Percussion) and Jorge Loura (Baritone Guitar) imagined what it would be like if Frank Zappa, Wayne Shorter, Richard Wagner and Egberto Gismonti met at a Tool concert and formed a trio. Out of this mathematical impossibility @trollstoymusic6476 was born.. The trio works with original compositions that carry on them vapors of unpredictable chemical reactions, which sometimes result in new alkaline materials, sometimes in acidic solutions, orienting the reports of these experiments to a very unconfined and unmarked electric jazz-fusion, revealing an unusual aesthetic amplitude. The drums and percussion work is intense, dramatic and inventive, catalysing all the chain reactions; the saxophone explores registers so wide that it seems to create a dialogue with distinct wind instruments when, in fact, we are in the presence of a monologue; and the transvestite bass guitar is precise and ubiquitous, while also masterfully supporting all the other decibels of this sound laboratory. In short, explosion and containment: this is also why weather forecasts are flawed. Thankfully – in this non-linearity, the answer is not necessarily proportional to the intensity of the disturbance: “order and chaos, silence and noise, war and peace”, remember?

*LISTEN TO TROLL'S TOY*
https://trollstoy.bandcamp.com/album/... https://trollstoy.bandcamp.com/album/... https://open.spotify.com/artist/7idpg...