"Xisto Sonoro - Sound Landscapes of Aldeias do Xisto Network” by the sound landscape artist Luís Antero, has been fully available on the artist's platform since July 18, World Listening Day.
This work, which dates back to 2013,has been available on the Aldeias do Xisto website since 2017, on the page dedicated to each of the 27 villages of the network, providing a sensory and auditory journey that reveals the region’s unique identity.
Throughout the 24 sound tracks (the villages of Janeiro de Baixo and Janeiro de Cima and those of Candal, Casal Novo and Chiqueiro are grouped into two tracks, respectively), the collected recordings present a unique sound portrait of the Aldeias do Xisto, revealing a group of distinct and vital villages.
The villages were sought out for their characteristic soundscapes, their sound landmarks, the sounds that define and distinguish them from other villages in the rural context of contemporary Portugal.
This quest also revealed the existence of common elements between villages located in the territory. The striking of the hour on the church tower clock is just one example.
But, even in common elements, the Aldeias do Xisto present nuance the 1,620 bells ringing at the local church Torre da Paz, in Benfeita uninterrupted for almost an hour and a half, on 7 May of each year, are unique and original.
It’s this originality, this authenticity, this ancestry, which give the Aldeias do Xisto rural Portugal’s unique sound mosaic.
To explore these villages acoustically is, most of the time, to encounter the ancient sounds that always populated them, imparting the history of the places and the people who were and are part of them.
