The Azores of Madredeus

Lost in the Atlantic, the Azores have kept an identity of their own: sea and volcanic mountains, lush vegetation and fields of black lava, a light that changes from one moment to the next. Teresa Salgueiro, the singer of Madredeus, and Pedro Ayres Magalhães, the composer, travel from island to island and find the mixed origins of their music, traces of an imaginary Portugal: traditions that have vanished on the mainland live on here. A landscape, the words of an old man, a village feast call up their songs. Teresa’s voice, with a single guitar, rises on the shore of a still lake. “Madredeus is an isolated case,” says Pedro, “a little like the Azores, lost in the ocean.”