Luca Argel and Filipe Sambado with "Sun in Gemini"

Luca Argel and Filipe Sambado will present “Sol em Gémeos” on May 31st at the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB) in Lisbon, a “unique” show in which they exchange songs, accompanied by a band created for the occasion.

Gemini, who have birthdays on consecutive days, Luca Argel and Filipe Sambado are “closer than it might seem at first glance”.

“Perhaps not in terms of aesthetic presentation, but in terms of what we propose as artists. The artistic gesture as a political gesture, as a gesture of intervention, in dialogue with the present, the present time”, said Luca Argel, in statements to Lusa.

Furthermore, Filipe Sambado recalled, the two make music “with a premise rooted in similar times, with Luca’s music developing largely based on variations and possibilities of Brazilian popular music”.

“I did the same thing in relation to Portuguese music,” he said.

The possibility of sharing a stage came about at the invitation of the CCB. The first time happened last year, at the Felicidade festival, in the Pequeno Auditório.

“It went really well, both for us and for the festival, and the proposal came up to do an expanded version of what we had done there,” recalled Luca Argel.

At the time, it was just the two of them, with their respective guitars, 'swapping' songs. The musician remembers the moment as “a very informal, very close, very intimate thing”.

“Now we’re going to have a band, there are more instruments, bigger arrangements, we make more noise. But I hope it has the same heat as the first time,” he said.

Over time, they got closer, became friends and also got to know each other's repertoire better, and “identified their points of contact”.

From Luca Argel's repertoire, Filipe Sambado highlights “Lampedusa”, from the album “Sabina”, released in 2023.

“It’s a song that touches me, because it’s such a visual description of such a striking problem [the crossing of the Mediterranean by migrants], but then there are songs that I gradually enjoy playing and it’s not so much because it’s my favorite or not,” he said, sharing that he “greatly enjoys playing” “Gentrificasamba.”

Luca Argel's choice from Filipe Sambado's repertoire falls, “at this moment”, on “Talha Dourada”, from the album “Three Years of Scorpio in Touro”, released in 2023.

On this album, Luca Argel was “very focused on the production, the sounds found, the aesthetic choices of the sound that the album has, which is super rich”.

“When I started to play some songs, like 'Talha Dourada', 'Faço um Desenho', “Choro da Rouca”, when I started to learn how to play them on the guitar, they revealed themselves in a different way. Because I didn't have the equipment to produce the album, it was just me, the song and the guitar. They started to grow on me, I started to notice things, especially in the lyrics, that I had previously missed and then: 'Wow. This is very well written'”, he shared.

“Sol em Gémeos” will be “a unique show”.

“It won’t happen again, there’s nothing in sight. That in itself is a point of interest for those who follow us. Then there’s a whole engagement that’s being created and that motivates us more and more to want to discover more of these songs. It’s becoming an increasingly interesting experience [for us] and for those who watch it there’s this sharing aspect”, said Filipe Sambado.

On stage, in addition to Luca Argel and Filipe Sambado, there will be bassist Vera Vera-Cruz, drummer Joana Komorebi, who are part of Sambado's band, and pianist Pri Azevedo, who has accompanied Argel in a voice and piano format.

“Taking the songs apart and handing them over to these three people who accompany us helps a lot to homogenize this show”, said Filipe Sambado.

Last year, Luca Argel released “Visita”, an album that brings together representative themes from his career, with new versions and an unreleased song recorded only with piano and keyboard, played by Pri Azevedo, and pays homage to Porto, the city that saw him “grow musically”.

This month he released an EP, “Meigo Energúmeno — Luca Argel sings Vinicius”, with six songs, which accompanies the book “Meigo Energúmeno — Notes for an anti-machista reading of Vinicius de Moraes”.

In this project, the Portuguese-Brazilian musician proposes “a bold and necessary reflection on the legacy of one of the greatest names in Brazilian poetry and music, with a contemporary and critical look at issues of gender and representation”.

Filipe Sambado, who identifies as non-binary, released a new album in January, “Gémea Analógica”, recorded live last year and in which he presents acoustic versions of the songs from “Três Anos de Escorpião em Touro”, which he has been performing this year on stages across the country.

Tickets for the show “Sol em Gémeos”, on May 31st at 7pm at the CCB, are now on sale and cost between 12.5 and 25 euros.