Rodrigo Leão

Composer Rodrigo Leão's name has been known to the Portuguese and internacional public since the days of the band Sétima Legião. He later joined Madredeus, a project with which he raised his profile. In 1993, he released his first album under his own name, Ave Mundi Luminar, launching a solo career that would include an extensive discography, including soundtracks and collaborations with artists such as Ryuichi Sakamoto, Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy), Beth Gibbons (Portishead) and Michelle Gurevich.

Now, 32 years after his debut as a solo musician, comes O Rapaz da Montanha (The Mountain Boy). And there's no avoiding the adjective: Rodrigo Leão's new album is surprising, both in musical terms and in terms of the composer's career. He himself acknowledges this: “It was an unexpected record. I've had it in my head for three years and I've been building it in a very focused way, in a different way to my previous albums, in which the composition came out without any specific time or intention. Here, starting from that phrase by Ana Carolina [Costa] 'If God forgives those who deceive/who forgives God?' [included in the theme Cadeira Preta] I immediately began to think about what I was going to do. And now that it's finished, I think it's the most Portuguese record I've made to date.”

This notion of identity is true: it runs through several of the composer's albums and is visible in the compilation Os Portugueses (2018). In fact, this new album could fit into that identity, which in one way or another has always been present in Leão's work.

Now, in 2025, O Rapaz da Montanha does indeed present a change of form and substance. Musically, the use of choirs (in which the composer himself participates), which reinforces a collective feeling, and a marked percussion in some songs immediately evokes some Portuguese singers from the 1970s, something that Leão recognizes.