Carlos Paredes - Movimento Perpétuo

•    The Portuguese guitar is an instrument that dates back several hundred years. It was built according to different standards around the country, but by the time Carlos Paredes began playing it, it had been generally agreed upon the construction: a short-necked, wide-bodied instrument with twelve- strings strung in six courses comprising two steel strings each. It has a distinctive tuning mechanism and it is most notably associated with the traditional Portuguese popular music known as fado.

•    Carlos Paredes was born in 1925 to the guitarist Artur Paredes. He was involved with music from an early age; first studying the violin for several years, before accepting that the family tradition of guitar playing was to be his destiny. To play the music the way he felt it should be played, Carlos studied with his father in order to master his instrument. He changed the traditional positioning of the strings to obtain a wider possibility and range of chords. It is a reflection of his desire for perfection that he would not make a record of his music until he was thirty-two years old, and this was just an EP.

•    After receiving recognition for the 1963 soundtrack to the film ‘Os Verdes Anos’, Paredes worked on music for film and stage productions for the next several years. His full-length debut, ‘Guitarra Portuguesa’, was finally released in 1967. His recording would establish him as the master of the Portuguese guitar. It took four more years to produce another album. Again regarded as a masterpiece, ‘Movimento Perpétuo’ showed a more mature Carlos Paredes. His compositions went beyond the traditional use of the instrument in fado musicianship, giving him (and the instrument) a status above folk or regional music. If the tireless playing of his instrument wasn’t enough, throughout the entire album one can hear Paredes breathe sharply as he forms his phrases.

•    Paredes recorded several more records in his career, and performed with many other artists including Charlie Haden, with whom he recorded ‘Dialogues’ in 1990. His songs became standards in the world of fado and are performed regularly. The Kronos Quartet recorded versions of ‘Verdes Anos’ and ‘Romance No. 1’ on their album ‘Caravan’ in 2000. In 2005, Six Organs Of Admittance dedicated the album ‘School Of The Flower To Paredes’.

•    The artwork for both records is a near-perfect copy of the 1967 and 1971 originals, complete with original Portuguese liner notes and English translations.

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