Visual Journalism, Text, Illustration

THE NEW SOUND OF LISBON
A Postcolonial Music Feature

This visual journalism feature explores the underground sound emanating from the impoverished outskirts of Lisbon and its conquest of dancefloors worldwide. This deeply personal project combines my passion for music, cultural exploration, and journalism. Find the text in English below.

Journalism, Text, Illustration: Alexandra Klobouk
Graphic Design: Isabel Latza for Studio Andreas Wellnitz
Published in the Portugal Issue of Il Paradiso Magazin

How do you create a completely new sound? A mix of influences from all over the Lusophian world and with a beat that will make you sweat? Place those diverse and distant cultures on the outskirts, isolate them from the rest of the city, blend them together and let them simmer for a while.
There you have it: the Sound of Lisbon.

This is not about Fado - this sound stomps, pushes, is loud and dirty and it makes people sweat. “1 drop, 2 drop, 3 drop, 4 - sound of Kuduro knocking at your door”.

“If I were a better dancer, I´d dance, not speak to you.”, says Batida, the famous Lisbonese musician from Angola, on dancing as a form of immediate conversation on a different level of understanding. I don´t understand until I try it out.

Quinta do Mocho is DJ Marfox’s home and the backyard of Lisbon’s airport. Only ten kilometers from the city center. But until last year there was no direct bus connection. Infrastructure speaks about the worth a city grants to the residents of an area.

“We're having a crazy party right now - the African awakening. But when the party is over and the light are out, we don’t have a plan.” Kalaf of Buraka Sound System