Once a week, UMBIGO invites one person to share their 5 cultural suggestions. What can we do at home? From a book to a podcast, album or film: here are recommendations from artists, curators, gallery owners, cultural activists, friends.

We will share the recipe for what makes us better, and we remain united and positive.

Umbigo has been publishing this section since the beginning of the pandemic.

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Music

Phelimuncasi: 2013 – 2019
Phelimuncasi
2020

This collective’s album is at the root of the Gqom style. I followed this record’s development during my stay in Uganda, listening for weeks to these and other tracks that are part of this essential and refreshing record.

Sound Characters
Maryanne Amacher
1999

One of my favourite composers, who I had the chance to see live in a magnificent and resonant sound meditation. In her lifetime, she had few releases (just this one, to be honest), which makes this record extremely important for understanding the singular research of an exceptional artist.

Movies

The Last Wave
Peter Weir
1977

A film that is a good complement to the classic Picnic at Hanging Rock, expanding some themes of alterity in a narrative where the atavistic dimension of the landscape is manifested from the Australian aboriginal cosmogony.

Possessor
Brandon Cronenberg
2020

Son of mythological director David Cronenberg, Brandon presents in this film an electric view of possession and its place in the future/present.

Sound Characters
Maryanne Amacher
2018

One of my favourite composers, who I had the chance to see live in a magnificent and resonant sound meditation. In her lifetime, she had few releases (just this one, to be honest), which makes this record extremely important for understanding the singular research of an exceptional artist.

Book

Intelligence and Spirit
Reza Negarestani
Urbanomic/Sequence Press

2018

An author I have followed since reading his text The Corpse Bride a few years ago. This book expands notions of intelligence and spirit into the realm of the artificial.

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Jonathan Uliel Saldanha is a musician, visual artist, sound and stage builder. He is currently working in association with Teatro Municipal do Porto. He investigates the areas of intersection between pre-language, alterity, science fiction, sound as a vector of contagion, and the tension between the synthetic and the landscape.

In 2021, he debuted the short-film AFTER THE LAW at the Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin. In 2021, he presented the installation SWARMING DECAY at Culturgest/Carpintarias de São Lázaro, released the album Lithium Blast by HHY & The Kampala Unit via Nyege Nyege.

In 2019, he premiered the piece for voice and sculpture SCOTOMA CINTILANTE / DISMORPHIA (Catholic University of Porto, BoCA, Teatro Nacional São Carlos, Lisbon), the piece for electronic percussion BROKEN FIELD ATLANTIS (FITEI, TM Rivoli), the exhibition PLAGUE VECTOR (Municipal Gallery of Braga), LOCUS HORRIBILIS (Galeria Solar), BEHEMOTH REPUBLIC (Geometria Sónica no Arquipélago – Centro de Artes). Between 2016/18, he presented the installation Vocoder & Camouflage, the piece O POÇO, the installation OXIDATION MACHINE, the exhibition AFASIA TÁTICA and the piece/film SØMA at the festivals Festival DDD, Verão Azul, DoDisturb – Palais de Tokyo, Anozero Bienal de Coimbra, Culturgest, Cordoaria Nacional Lisboa. In 2012, he was the co-curator of the programme SONORES – som/espaço/sinal for the European Capital of Culture in Guimarães. Since 2009, he has been the co-creator of the scenic pieces Nyarlathotep and Máquina da Selva presented at Accès(s) Festival, Balleteatro and Serralves Museum. He has also composed several pieces for voice, electronics and resonant space: KHOROS ANIMA, SANCTA VISCERA TUA, DEL, SILVO UMBRA and PLETHORA. He performed live at the festivals Unsound, Le Guess Who?, Sónar, Primavera Sound, Amplifest, Out.Fest, Milhões de Festa, Neopop or Elevate. He is the leader of the music project HHY & The Macumbas and was the founder of the collective SOOPA, label and booking agency of live shows and performances started in 1999, in Oporto. He created the film/essay MÁQUINA DA SELVA / MUNDO DE CRISTAL released by the Serralves Museum.