Vítor Rua

Vítor Rua (Telectu) is one of the key figures of Portuguese creative music, with a career covering a multitude of idioms and styles, from rock (he was the founder of the very popular band GNR) to minimalism, concrete music, electronic music, mimetic jazz, folk, punk, thrash metal, country music, and to free improvisation (with Telectu, his duo with pianist and musicologist Jorge Lima Barreto, sometimes with contributors like Sunny Murray, Gerry Hemingway, Han Bennink, Paul Lytton, Barry Altschul, Gunter Sommer, Chris Cutler, Eddie Prevóst, Louis Sclavis, Jac Berrocal, Carlos “Zíngaro” and Elliott Sharp). Since 1987 he focus on classical contemporary composition, either with solo, chamber and orchestral formats (and having John Tilbury, Giancarlo Schiaffini, Daniel Kientzy, Peter Rundel, Christian Brancusi, Remix Ensemble, among others, as interpreters) or messing rather humorously with the opera tradition (he wrote already five operas). This new activity didn’t make him forget his instrument of choice, the guitar, and neither did it collide much with his thinking of an ensemble as a guitar band. And yes, it sounds like Vítor Rua is making accounts with his own life. It’s that important, that urgent, that significative.