DWART - Electricidade Estética (2019)

Strangelove’s latest release turns left somewhere near the edge of the Atlantic, with "Electricidade Estética” documenting a vibrant window into the musical landscape of 1980’s counter-culture Portugal.

Compiling early un-issued works, DWART’s organic Ash-Ra Balearics meld with spikey Iberian electronics, coalescing around the floating beauty of ‘Mate’, reissued for the first time on vinyl.

With emergent music technologies of the era enthusiastically adopted by Lisbon’s avante-garde, there was a collective desire by DWART and their contemporaries to push sonic boundaries.

Post new wave sounds melded with distinctive local sensibilities. Vítor Rua & Jorge Lima Barreto of the legendary Telectu (whom Antoñio currently tours with) were regular collaborators while composer and guitarist Nuno Rebelo and guitarist/singer Bernardo Devlin feature on several songs.

Antoñio & Manuela Duarte’s search for an artistic language melded a continuing curiosity with aural and physical dualities: experimental pop integrated with performance art, mathematics sound-tracked on canvas, organic found sounds at ease alongside synthetic drum machines.