eosin: for beniko

Closing the unofficial "New Weird Portugal" tape batch on Sucata Tapes is Eosin, aka Diana Combo, with For Beniko, a mixtape of crackling and drone-y vinyl mixed with field recordings recorded outdoors on a later summer afternoon in Alentejo. ''This piece was made during a residency in Elvas (Alentejo, Portugal), in the context of the first edition of the festival A Salto, in July 2016. one of the invited artists was given a specific place to develop work to be presented during the festival. I spent a week at Fábrica Frutas Doces, a small "factory" dedicated to the preparation of prunes and plums in syrup. Some families have been linked to it for several generations, as is the case of Luís Silveirinha's family, the current owner. Frutas Doces isn't the only factory of this kind but it is the only one operating exclusively in an artisan way. Luís and his only employee were cooking the plums, adding fire to the already-high summer temperatures of around 40 degrees Celsius. This has to be done when the plums are collected, preserving the fruits at their best. I recorded bits of our exchange of words while they were doing their job. At home, I worked with a collection of vinyl records and made a composition using them. It was like I was creating the tone, a certain voice of the space, a construction that becomes its new reality. At the same time, I joined Beniko, a visual artist, for the creation of her performance to be presented as the opening of A Salto, and one thing influenced and inspired the other. The piece I made was presented as a live composition using the pre-recorded bits, at the terrace of the Fábrica in a late afternoon that was surprisingly mild. I decided to name the recording of this piece For Beniko, as she was an inspiration and remains as a beautiful memory of the time spent in Elvas. Listening to the piece is a way to go back in time and remember the period of its creation. Sounds can bring images, and other sounds, feelings, smells and taste to memory in a way that is so acute and live, even when the material that documents that certain reality is a construction of it, quite afar from its figurative or realistic representation.'' --Diana Combo, January 2018