On his back, Fausto carries the full weight of history, expanding beyond the palpable connections between the immediate past and present. The task of this master is to act as the diaphragm of Portugal—to exhale while overlooking the instruments. Por Este Rio Acima tells stories of spices, travel, and love between instruments that jangle in mediaeval whimsy, or skim softly around the globe. The freewheeling gust with which this album moves is an expression of Fausto’s romanticism, but tied to his narrative vastness, it is complete and substantial. “I came close to the dream, floating in the waters, from the rivers of the skies,” he writes, perfectly.
30/30
A favourite: ‘Navegar, Navegar’
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