words: Guilherme Lucas; photos:
Raquel Pinheiro
French singer-songwriter Raoul
Vignal, ended his small tour of two weeks – with a couple of concerts in
neighbouring Galiza – Sunday night at Salão do Círculo Católico de Operários do
Porto, albeit have been playing across Europe since the beginning of the year
that will still take him, in coming days, to the Czech Republic and, later, to
a few more concerts in France.
Raoul Vignal is a new emerging talent
in French music (and, therefore, global, since we live in an era of immediate
contact through the Web). His musical style is, essentially, characterized by a
solid and singular technique of classic guitar plucking, of a levity and
frailty at times complex, but pleasantly impacting, always “drawing”
fascinating sound landscapes of melancholy, loneliness and longing. Combined
with an unusual, but captivating, voice timbre – that we can consider more as a
lament or whisper – the final product is of undeniable quality and very
interesting to be listened with deserving attention. In a wider and more
encompassing sense the comparison in search of references that help us situate
his musical style, Raoul Vignal is the artist closest to the mighty Nick Drake
that I was able to hear of late. There are - obviously - differences between
both, but it is also impossible not to ascertain the commonalities that are
found in both artists’ music. When the comparison is to Nick Drake, we are
always talking of exceptional quality. Always.
In a freezing hall, with an attentive
audience, Raoul Vignal, managed to warm, as much as possible, our hearts and
souls. Very nice and always in a constant interaction with the audience,
speaking about his lasts days on tour or what the next song was about, the
artist promised to return, but, the next time, with a band. It was an excellent
concert, and, at the end, I took comfort in the idea (hopefully not daring),
that I watched a concert of an artist that may still become important and a
reference to many.
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