Gabriel de Oliveira

Gabriel de Oliveira - 8-string guitar, electronics, vocals
River Adomeit - double bass, vocals
Zenzele Mthembu-Salter - electric bass, vocals
Beatrice Sberna - vocals

Gabriel de Oliveira presents, Where Dona Nina Saw The Fire, a new commission that reveals how the musicality embedded in his grandmother Nina’s life, struggle, and surroundings has paved the way for his own creativity, aiming to make a bridge between their timelines. The series of new compositions collects songs, spoken word, instrumental scores, and samples of Nina’s speech, performed and arranged by a small mostly acoustic ensemble. Much of the material is translated from a spontaneous audio recording of an interview with Nina, made by the artist in 2021 upon a visit to his father’s hometown of Guarulhos, Brazil. The recording captures not only Nina’s stories, but the organic and day-to-day sounds of her household. Departing from this sonic information, de Oliveira’s work incorporates songwriting, regional Brazilian rhythms, and choral singing. The series imagines the spaces of his grandmother’s stories, sonically mapping the geographies of her life.