The Strings of São Domingos

In the 1970s, Pascoal, a soldier in Cape Verde's independence struggle nicknamed "El Bruto" or "The Brute" for his "brutal" guitar skills, was whisked around the world during the Cold War, finding himself stationed from Cuba to Crimea. A musician at heart, Pascoal's military postings became jam sessions as he mingled with soldiers from across the Africa, Asia, and South America.

Today, in the small inland town of São Domingos on Santiago Island, he leads The Ano Nobo Quartet, named after his mentor and legendary Cape Verdean composer, Ano Nobo. Their Koladera, or Coladeira—a guitar-driven, subtly rhythmic sound of a lighter spirit—is a global story with Cape Verde at its center, a creole melting pot in the middle of the Atlantic attracting the best from four continents: hypnotic, haunting Koladera guitars inflected with twangs of Salsa Cubano, Spanish Flamenco, Brazilian Samba Canção, Jamaican Reggae, Argentine Tango, Mozambican Marrabenta, and finished with a dash of Black American Blues. It's all here. Pascoal even picked up a few notes from a group of Chinese guitarists who arrived on a socialist cultural exchange in Cape Verde. Absent percussion, the quartet's sound still drips with rhythm. Rich, raw acoustic music you can dance to.

This album was recorded in three locations on Santiago Island: at homes, by the sea, and in the volcanic hills of Cape Verde. Each location used a mobile recording studio equipped with different mics placed near and far to capture both the Spanish and Chinese-made guitars and the natural environment that shapes the saudade, a melancholic longing, of Koladera. Each space has its own atmosphere heard in the interludes.

The maiden voyage of our new Ostinato Acoustics series, The Ano Nobo Quartet confirms humanity is at its finest when we break life down to its essential parts and fundamental simplicity. A sound and approach cast from the depths of personal and world history that obliges us to seek humbler ways in the years ahead and hold the delicate yet sharp, serene yet swaying strings of São Domingos as the soundtrack to exit a brutal time, guided by brutally good music from brutally good guitarists.

A double LP pressed at 45 RPM for an even silkier listening experience and packaged in a luxurious matte-laminated gatefold with a high quality 12-page booklet along with a hardcover bookcase CD with a 24-page booklet.