music is a place for encounters
a special and unique place
where ideas and feelings come together
by unfathomable means
SONGS FROM THE BOOKS
Progressive experimental and dreamy songs in a kind of tribute to the great writers of our lives. Arranged and produced by Paulo Chagas at Oficina Sonora, Peniche, Portugal.
Portuguese-born Paulo Chagas is a wilfully eclectic musician, having devoted much of his career to experimentalism. Being by nature a maverick, he has committed his life to the research of new (or renewed) solutions and links between the sounds he explores. Paulo is a dedicated composer, multi-instrumentalist (woodwinds, electronics), teacher, writer and music promoter. He is actively involved with Zpoluras Archives, a music label committed to various branches of contemporary improvised music and to working in partnership with musicians from all parts of the world, and MIA (Encontro de Música Improvisada de Atouguia da Baleia), which plays an essential role within the Portuguese improvisation circuit.
Paulo has a Classical Music background. He studied oboe, composition, acoustics and music history at the National Conservatory of Lisbon (1980-1985), where he joined Orchestra and Chamber Music groups. He has degrees in Special Education, Pedagogy of Music Education, and Music Therapy. He subsequently devoted himself to jazz, studying with saxophonists David Binney and Perico Sambeat. From his earliest years as a musician, Paulo has had a broad interest in all musical forms, from folk, pop and rock, through jazz, fusion, improvised music, and classical.
He has composed, performed and produced music for theater, film, and for educational purposes. He regularly performs and records with an ever-widening range of musicians and collectives, such as P.R.E.C., Ensemble MIA, Ar de Bop, Variable Geometry Orchestra, Chagas Curado Viegas Wind Trio, Motim, Potlatch, Tania Giannouli, Marcello Magliochi, Maresuke Okamoto, Matthias Boss, Delphine Dora, Bruno Duplant, Lee Noyes, Willhelm Mathies, Troy Schaffer, Carlos Zíngaro, Paulo Curado, João Pedro Viegas, Abdul Moimeme, Fernando Simões, Paulo Duarte, Fernando Guiomar and many others.
Describing himself as a “music addict”, Paulo is an avid performer, keen to experiment, record, perform, and to do whatever is necessary to further the cause of music. For him, music is an Art form that is intimately linked with the ongoing search for the meaning of life.
From his discography we can highlight the following titles: Mispel Bellyfull (2004); Zpoluras demo (gds 2005); Miosótis – Risco (gds 2007); PREC – Contagious Insanities (A Beard of Snails Records 2009); The Limbo Ensemble – Plebiscitu (Audiotong 2011); Late Winter/Early Spring (Audiotong 2011); Duplant, Chagas & Noyes - The Bias of the Things (Ilse 2012); Chagas, Boss & Okamoto – Little Concert in the Garden (ZA 2012); Chagas Curado Viegas Wind Trio – Old School New School No School (Creative Sources 2012); Tania Giannouli and Paulo Chagas - Forest Stories (Rattle, 2012).