In August 2012 Binaural/Nodar began a weekly radio show at a small radio of S. Pedro do Sul (Radio Lafões, 93.00 Mhz) but with great coverage across Center Portugal, reaching Aveiro, Porto, Coimbra and Viseu. This program, entitled “Tramontana” and presented by Luís Costa (President of Binaural/Nodar), began in the scope of an anthropological, ethnomusicological and soundscapes documentation project entitled Memory Archive of Lafões, Paiva and Vouga Valleys and integrated in the Tramontana Network of european memory archives from mountain areas.
“Tramontana” tries to be a contribution that can add anthropological density and communitarian proximity to a context, small radio station of interior Portugal, that are increasingly reaching unthinkable levels of banality and “poor” replica of massified radio broadcasting models. In this sense, “Tramontana” perhaps refers to the imaginary of the ’60s and ’70s radio, when you could hear (in the Portuguese public radio, of course) a farmer calmly talking about his memories and anxieties while plowing his land, or the voices and songs in the landscape from women defoliating the corn kernels, or even the “singing to the three wise men” from door to door in a lost village in the mountains.
We began to do radio for the first time with “Tramontana”. Probably the voice was hesitant in the first shows, maybe it is already more convincing, but one thing is certain: the voices from the rural mountain people (our mountains of Arada, Gralheira and Montemuro) never cease to be authentic and expressive, on conviction, on the choice of words, on the rhythms and accents, that still resist to the ever-growing formatting of contemporary communication (all those voices and faces without any density, but with poses as if they were saying the most important thing in the world).
Each month we will bring to the Binaural/Nodar newsletter links to the five previous shows of “Tramontana”, along with their content description, so that the irrevocable passage of time can give some respite to this sound material that pays homage to the resisting rural.
Five previous Tramontana shows
Tramontana – Rádio Lafões #30 | 02 Mar 2013
0th Tramontana radio show hosted by Binaural/Nodar’s Luis Costa, entirely dedicated to a traditional crafts organization from S. Pedro do Sul (Portugal): Associação de Artesãos de S. Pedro do Sul. Six Interviews were made to each one of the artisans and sweetmakers who daily work at the former S. Pedro do Sul train station, forming a cross-generational puzzle of very different live and work stories. Here are their names: Fátima Marques, José Almeida, Ana Maria Rocha, Natália Rocha, Lurdes Pereira and Fátima Monteiro. Interviews made by Manuela Barile, Nely Ferreira and Ricardo Frade, all from Binaural/Nodar team.
Tramontana – Rádio Lafões #29 | 23 Feb 2013
29th “Tramontana” radio show, dedicated to rural carnivals recorded by Basque Country sound arts organization audiolab.org both in villages of their region and in the mediterranean island of Sardinia. These ancestral carnivals have deep connection with rural carnivals in the Portuguese mountainous area of Gralheira Mountain Range, where the Memory Archive of Lafões, Paiva and Vouga valleys is being developed by Binaural/Nodar, part of the Tramontana network of memory archives.
Tramontana – Rádio Lafões #28 | 16 Feb 2013
28th “Tramontana” radio show totally dedicated to voices and ocasional sound creations related to the Paiva river, Europe’s best kept river in terms of natural and human sustainability. In 2010 and 20111 Luis Costa from Binaural/Nodar travelled over 100 km along this river, from its source to its mouth, and spoke with key persons in five different villages belonging to different municipalities (Carapito, Alhais, Pinheiro, Nodar and Canelas), thus creating a deeper understanding of both past and present dynamics of the profound connection between rural communities and a river, producer/enhancer of aspects such as agriculture, fish, communication, mythologies and leisure.
Tramontana – Rádio Lafões #27 | 09 Feb 2013
27th Tramontana radio show hosted by Binaural/Nodar’s Luis Costa, entirely dedicated to the civil parish of Sul, located in the Gralheira Mountain Range in rural northern Portugal (S. Pedro do Sul municipality). Several persons were interviewed to capture a sense of diversity of lives and experiences: the president of the Civil Parish, young José Pedro Maurício who explained how complex can be the management of such a small administrative territory (from water management, fire protection, economical development, social inclusion, culture and heritage promotion etc.). Other persons were interviewed like mr. Serafim Ferreira and Mrs. Maria Emilia, both bar and general store owners (respectively from Oliveira and Sul) and Mrs. Cidália Pereira, local school assistant since many years ago.
Tramontana – Rádio Lafões #26 | 26 Jan 2013
26th Tramontana radio show entirely dedicated to the small village of Rompecilha, located in the southern side of Mount S. Macário (civil parish of S. Martinho das Moitas, municipality of S. Pedro do Sul, Portugal). The show was comprised of three parts: Firstly, a long interview to a local inhabitant, Mr. Arlindo Dias, a simple farmer with only the primary school finished, but who is a living rural life enciclopedia. Secondly, some traditional chants by a group of local women and finaly a set of field recodings inside the village (water tanks, an old water mill still working, sheeps in a pasture etc.).