ilhas Atlânticas

This track was originally recorded by The Electricka Zoo (2017), and appears on the Other Islands: 2012-2018 compilation. It’s based around a (non-diatonic) Cmaj7 – Amaj7 pattern, with a bossa nova rhythm.

It’s dedicated to my great-great-grandfather Manuel Bernard.

Manuel José Bernard (1847-1928)

He was born in 1847 in Ponta Delgada, Flores Island, Azores, Portugal.

The words are in (beginner) Portuguese:

Eu gosto de falar

no meus ancestrais

de as ilhas Atlânticas

Madeiras e Açores

Portugal is the westernmost country in Europe, with its back to it geographically and culturally. It was the edge of the known world for Europeans until the Age of Discovery. The Azores islands are even further west.

As a teenager, Manuel Bernard stowed away on a passing American whaling ship.

From a remote island in the Atlantic ocean, he ended up on an equally remote island in the Pacific – on the opposite side of the world, in Wellington, New Zealand.

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the Electricka Zoo on Access Radio this Saturday

Electricka Zoo played live in the studio

on Terry’s Songwriters Show

It was broadcast on Saturday 15th of April – hear the podcast online.

The Digitator (left), DJ Terry Shore (middle), and Dave Black (right), April 2017

Terry’s Songwriters Show is a weekly programme hosted by Terry Shore – who is a singer/song-writer himself.

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