A welcome return to OTO for Lisbon-based guitarist Manuel Mota. With a highly personal style of playing, Mota draws inspiration from a multitude of references loosely rooted in the blues tradition to craft a sound which was highly regarded by Derek Bailey. Support from Glasgow based guitarist Neil Davidson (Asparagus Piss Raindrop / With Lumps) dismantling the romantic sound through melodic digressions and fragmentations.

MANUEL MOTA

Born in 1970 and based in Lisbon, Manuel Mota has a very direct and personal language in guitar playing. His music is part of a tradition rooted in blues and reveals a wide range of influences and historical references; at the same time immediate and timeless. Playing in public since 1990, he studied and experimented with prepared guitar creating drone-related pieces. Since around 1997 he shifted focus to developing his finger-style guitar work. This remains his main focus of activity. His artistic activity has been mostly confined to the underground, lo fi world reflecting a core aspect of his work; its unadorned directness and simplicity of means. He founded the record label "Headlights" in 1998 and almost exclusively releases his work there, his latest LP "untitled" was released in 2011. A 5CD box of his solo recordings was also released on Dromos Records this year.

"What comes across to me across the five discs here though is the personality that forces its way through the mists created by the quietness, the lack of liner notes, the restraint in the playing. I feel and hear a musician living every note at a very personal level... Here is where the spirit of Bailey shines through for me. While the music sits in a very clear aesthetic area, one feels that Mota concerns himself less with the surface of his work than he does its shape and form." - The Watchful Ear on 'Dromos'

Neil Davidson, Hong Chulki at University of Glasgow music department from Balloon & Needle on Vimeo.