The Dutch musician has continued his musical exploration and now found a new favourite terrain in analogue synthesizers, no longer featuring vocals in his compositions. The result is an intriguing album, that will be presented live in a special quadrophonic format. It will be the opening concert of this year’s Westway LAB.

When we listen to her music, perhaps it is only her subtle Mediterranean sensibility, that runs throughout her compositions, which enables us to realise that she is actually an Italian singer-songwriter. Her first EP, “Half Moon Lane,” released last year, is a collection of six songs in which the guitar needs little company other than her powerful vocals.

At the end of the 1-week artistic residency in the Candoso Creation Centre, within the framework of Westway LAB, this year’s eight musicians will present the results of their collaboration. This 40-minute showcase is the only requirement placed by the organisation on the participating artists. But of the 20 musical encounters that the festival has fostered since 2014, several have given rise to new musical projects. The 2-day showcase therefore offers a unique first-hand opportunity to listen to new music that may make its mark in the future.

This year’s call for proposals resulted in three choices that highlight the diversity of Portuguese musical creation, from pop based on guitars and synthesizers of Neev, to Fado music accompanied by the Portuguese guitar of Marta Pereira da Costa – the only woman who currently plays this instrument – and the delicate-sweet indie music of Vaarwell (Margarida Falcão, of the Golden Slumbers, Ricardo Nagy and Luís Monteiro).

This year’s call for proposals resulted in three choices that highlight the diversity of Portuguese musical creation, from pop based on guitars and synthesizers of Neev, to Fado music accompanied by the Portuguese guitar of Marta Pereira da Costa – the only woman who currently plays this instrument – and the delicate-sweet indie music of Vaarwell (Margarida Falcão, of the Golden Slumbers, Ricardo Nagy and Luís Monteiro).

This year the itinerary will be a bit different, starting from the Santa Luzia ArtHotel, and including the Tribuna space of the São Mamede Arts and Entertainment Centre and the Bar Oub’lá, in the Praça de S. Tiago, in addition to the usual venues of the City Showcases – the Bar da Ramada and the café-concerto of the Convento Association. In these venues it will be possible to listen to indie-pop from Mickey, a Slovak duo based in Austria, American-influenced pop (from R&B to hip-hop) by Swedish Elin Namnieks, or the indie-rock of Izzy and the Black Trees , from Poland, three projects that are part of the selection of the INES network for 2019. Greek multi-instrumentist and composer, Theodore, will also perform. Portuguese music is well represented by Holy Nothing, one of the country’s most promising bands, which explores the frontier between electronic and post-rock, as well as guitarist Francisco Sales, singer Beatriz Nunes and the dirty-rock quartet, Smartini.

This year the itinerary will be a bit different, starting from the Santa Luzia ArtHotel, and including the Tribuna space of the São Mamede Arts and Entertainment Centre and the Bar Oub’lá, in the Praça de S. Tiago, in addition to the usual venues of the City Showcases – the Bar da Ramada and the café-concerto of the Convento Association. In these venues it will be possible to listen to indie-pop from Mickey, a Slovak duo based in Austria, American-influenced pop (from R&B to hip-hop) by Swedish Elin Namnieks, or the indie-rock of Izzy and the Black Trees , from Poland, three projects that are part of the selection of the INES network for 2019. Greek multi-instrumentist and composer, Theodore, will also perform. Portuguese music is well represented by Holy Nothing, one of the country’s most promising bands, which explores the frontier between electronic and post-rock, as well as guitarist Francisco Sales, singer Beatriz Nunes and the dirty-rock quartet, Smartini.

Westway LAB is famous because audiences have to hurry back and forth between several venues in Guimarães – in search of the latest musical innovations. This year the itinerary will be a bit different, starting from the Santa Luzia ArtHotel, and including the Tribuna space of the São Mamede Arts and Entertainment Centre and the Bar Oub’lá, in the Praça de S. Tiago, in addition to the usual venues of the City Showcases – the Bar da Ramada and the café-concerto of the Convento Association. In these venues it will be possible to listen to indie-pop from Mickey, a Slovak duo based in Austria, American-influenced pop (from R&B to hip-hop) by Swedish Elin Namnieks, or the indie-rock of Izzy and the Black Trees , from Poland, three projects that are part of the selection of the INES network for 2019. Greek multi-instrumentist and composer, Theodore, will also perform. Portuguese music is well represented by Holy Nothing, one of the country’s most promising bands, which explores the frontier between electronic and post-rock, as well as guitarist Francisco Sales, singer Beatriz Nunes and the dirty-rock quartet, Smartini.

Westway LAB is famous because audiences have to hurry back and forth between several venues in Guimarães – in search of the latest musical innovations. This year the itinerary will be a bit different, starting from the Santa Luzia ArtHotel, and including the Tribuna space of the São Mamede Arts and Entertainment Centre and the Bar Oub’lá, in the Praça de S. Tiago, in addition to the usual venues of the City Showcases – the Bar da Ramada and the café-concerto of the Convento Association. In these venues it will be possible to listen to indie-pop from Mickey, a Slovak duo based in Austria, American-influenced pop (from R&B to hip-hop) by Swedish Elin Namnieks, or the indie-rock of Izzy and the Black Trees , from Poland, three projects that are part of the selection of the INES network for 2019. Greek multi-instrumentist and composer, Theodore, will also perform. Portuguese music is well represented by Holy Nothing, one of the country’s most promising bands, which explores the frontier between electronic and post-rock, as well as guitarist Francisco Sales, singer Beatriz Nunes and the dirty-rock quartet, Smartini.

We will continue to hear the sounds from Guimarães. Three of the city’s musical projects are about to release new albums and Westway LAB gives them the opportunity to perform them live for the first time. The musicians of Paraguaii will present their third album, “Kopernikus”, which has already been anticipated by the single “Wild Horse”, in which they further their electronic exploration. Mister Roland, the project from the singer/songwriter, Rolando Ferreira, who attended an artistic residency at Westway LAB last year, will present his first album, “Trembling Giant”. Pedro Ribeiro, aka Captain Boy, will be attending artistic residency this year. In addition to his musical creation within the festival, he is about to release a new album.

Wada will bring to Westway LAB the result of this journey of diverse inspirations that last year resulted in the album, "Nue", in which he collaborated with several musicians, including the duo that accompanies him here: Julia Holter (who returns to Guimarães in April, when she will give her own concert at the Centro Cultural Vila Flor) and the percussionist Corey Fogel, who regularly works with both musicians.

The band’s third album, "The Mamb King," released last year, has confirmed their status, but their music remains close to its roots where it began almost a decade ago: pop inspired by black America, between the blues, soul and funk.

The musicians of Paraguaii will present their third album, “Kopernikus”, which has already been anticipated by the single “Wild Horse”, in which they further their electronic exploration. Mister Roland, the project from the singer/songwriter, Rolando Ferreira, who attended an artistic residency at Westway LAB last year, will present his first album, “Trembling Giant”. Pedro Ribeiro, aka Captain Boy, will be attending artistic residency this year. In addition to his musical creation within the festival, he is about to release a new album.

Having composed a couple of songs they won the Termómetro festival in 2015, which catapulted them to the stages of the leading Portuguese festivals even before they released their first album – “Whales” – which was only released last year and helped them perform in venues outside Portugal, including the Eurosonic festival, where they performed this year.

This year, he will return with a show that is much more than a concert or a DJ set – it's a fully-rounded performance. Coquenão questions the DJ’s role in today's dance music culture, without ever forgetting the need to get the audience to dance. He combines electronics with the rhythms of Africa that are also the source of inspiration for his best-known project - Batida.