Terrakota

If one says Lisbon, one thinks fado. Well, think again because here comes Terrakota, the leaders of the worldfusion scène that is developing in Lisbon. Terrakota and tens of young bands form the up-and-coming ‘musica mestiça’ scène are coming along with the rising cultural diversity influenced by immigrant populations, and musicians, from the ancient Portuguese colonies Angola, Cape Verde, Brazil, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. Lisbon is changing. The ‘cidade do fado’ is being more and more open and multicultural, and no one better represents that cultural diversity than Terrakota.

It’s been ten beautiful years since that first trip to Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal. Junior, Alex and Humberto went to learn balafon, African guitar, ngoni and percussion from the local musicians. That travel was a huge musical inspiration and travelling has been Terrakota’s most significant source of ideas ever since. Brazil, Morocco, Senegal, India, Jamaica, Cuba, Andalusia, Congo, Cape Verde, name it and they’ve been there...

Mixing up all these cultures is nice, but how do you call the result? Fusion, world fusion, musique métisse as the French call it. Terrakota’s Facebook-page suggests: Afro/world mestizo explosion! Doesn’t matter any longer, Terrakota has founded its own musical genre: world massala! World standing for world music and massala for the mixture, as massala is a mixture of species used a lot in Indian cuisine! So don’t look any further and file under ‘world massala’, meaning bringing new innovative musical fusions over and over again, without any fear of experiment, just jamming until you find a formula where ancient musical traditions embrace the 21st century.

On this new album, once again the masters of Afro-Lisboa fusão have used a broad palette of colours to paint a world without borders. Whether it’s mbalax, funana, samba, reggae, Afro-Cuba, gnawa, afrobeat, desert blues, batuque, flamenco, maracatu, rap or chimurenga, Terrakota intermingles it all with ease in its world massala.

The precedent album, "Oba Train", took them on a powerful tour through Europe’s biggest summer festivals, including Etnosur, BAM/Festas de la Mercè, Cuilla de Cultures and En Vivo (Spain), Couleur Café, Sfinks, Esperanzah and Polé Polé (Belgium), Festival du Bout du Monde (France), Exit Festival (Serbia), Amsterdam Roots (Holland), becoming one of Europe’s leading worldfusion bands.

It’s no secret that Terrakota is a live band with one of the most energetic shows of the world music scene !