MARCO FRANCO (PT) | MUDRA

With a vast past in rock and jazz, Marco Franco is a familiar name in the portuguese pop imaginary, which could in no way be prepared to discover him sitting at the piano. But it is on the surface that Franco’s composition, self-taught on the keys, is felt, existing in a minimalist tension with a colourful universe of notes and major progressions, joyful and full of a universalised love.

Mudra, the first solo piano album, is a turning point from a past deeply rooted in indie and jazz, with passages in projects such as Mikado Lab, Peste e Sida and collaborations with Dead Combo, Carlos Bica and Memória de Peixe, to a future sedimented in a more erudite context, but which is not diluted in communication.

Between melodic cadences of an unparalleled joy and melancholic progressions, Marco Franco creates a tension that resolves in chills and with a dynamic sensitivity that is simply enviable, channelling the best that can be heard from composers like Satie and Bartok in a Mudra that belongs only to him. What he describes between black and white keys is, however, something we all share and is so evident and so found in Mudra.

Marco Franco makes music for those who listen with their heart.

BIO |

Marco Franco (1972, Lisbon) is a composer musician and self-taught visual artist. He started his musical career in 1986, collaborated on numerous projects from rock to improvisation. He founded the group Mikado Lab, in 2017 edits Mudra for piano solo. Integrates the Blue Mountains group together with Norberto Lobo and Bruno Pernadas. He has his first solo exhibition, Parágrafo, at Galeria ZDB curated by Natxo Checa in 2020.

He created music for theater, dance and cinema.