EU.CLIDES among project participants mentored by Anderson.Paak

According to information available on the project's official website, promoted by an Irish whiskey brand, 12 artists, "coming from distant regions of the globe," will be in Ireland this month "for a week of composition, reworking, and recording, which crosses categories, customs, and continents, to distill and perform five genre-bending tracks for music fans around the world."

The list of 12 artists includes, in addition to EU.CLIDES, Loyiso from South Africa, Kethan and Xenia Manasseh from Kenya, Mary Ann Alexander from India, Monika Karina from Indonesia, and Moldanazar from Kazakhstan, among others.

Leading the group will be Anderson.Paak, an American singer and producer, who, in addition to his solo career, also participates in two projects: NxWorries, with Knxwledge, and Silk Sonic, with Bruno Mars.

Anderson.Paak will guide the selected artists "through the collaborative process of creating truly unique music that opens their minds, stays true to their roots, and 'brings the house down.'"

According to the North American publication Rolling Stone, the results of the second edition of the Distilled Sounds project will be released throughout the summer, on the Jameson brand's channel on the online video sharing platform YouTube, "including digital presentations and 'masterclasses'".

The first edition of the project, last year, featured Portuguese DJ and producer Branko among the selected artists.

EU.CLIDES was born in 1996 in Cape Verde. A year later, he moved to Portugal, where at the age of 8 he began studying classical guitar at the Aveiro Conservatory. "I only stopped studying classical guitar when I was 19 or 20, already in Paris," where he moved, he recalled in an interview with Lusa in March 2023.

Before starting his solo career, and already living in the French capital, he accompanied the Senegalese group Daara J Family on tour, and later became part of the team of Cape Verdean singer Mayra Andrade.

As a solo artist, in addition to being a guitarist, he also became a singer because he felt that "when he sang he ended up being able to convey more things to people."

In 2020, he released his first song, 'Terra-Mãe', a tribute to Freedom and April 25, 1974.

'Ir para quê?' and 'Tempo Torto' followed, the latter in collaboration with Branko, with whom he would work again on the songs for the EP 'Reservado', released in 2021, a year also marked by his participation in the Festival da Canção, as an interpreter of a song composed by Pedro da Linha, and by his first solo concerts.

In March 2023, he released his debut album, 'Declive', which is positioned "at the center" of all the places he has been, from classical music to electronic music, including gospel and the sounds of Cape Verde.

That year, he received the 2022 José Afonso Prize for 'Reservado'. With this award, the judges "wanted to celebrate [EU.CLIDES'] ability to experiment with new sounds, anchored by Cape Verdean music, in line with what José Afonso has always achieved: the intersection of tradition and renewal."

This year he returned to the Festival da Canção, but this time as a guest composer.

In October, EU.CLIDES will perform live in Lisbon, on the 3rd at Casa Capitão, and in Porto, on the 17th at Sala Mouco.

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