THE RIVERS OF THE COMMUNITY
Viseu Dão Lafões

A poetic, musical and multimedia performance
Sax on the Road + Binaural Nodar

Saturday, 9 May at 4.00 pm
São Pedro do Sul Cultural Centre

The territory of the Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community, comprising fourteen municipalities in the central region, features a wide variety of rivers, framed from north to south by three main river basins: the Douro, the Vouga and the Mondego. These three rivers and their tributaries (such as the Paiva and the Dão) even define some of the boundaries between municipalities and, consequently, part of the map of the Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community itself.

In 2023, the project “The Rivers of the Community – Viseu Dão Lafões ” was launched, involving the selection of 14 rivers and streams. These were chosen to include both some of the smaller rivers and streams, as well as the major rivers that help define the geography of the territory and cross several municipalities: Alfusqueiro, Castelo, Coja, Cabanas, Carapito, Dão, Dinha, Mau, Mondego, Paiva, Pavia, Sátão, Sul and Vouga. Each of these riverine contexts was extensively documented by the Binaural Nodar team, in terms of soundscapes, interviews with local communities and video recordings.

Following this research, in 2024, a phase of poetic and musical research began, which took the form of a collaboration between the team from Binaural Nodar and the musical group Sax on the Road, formed by António Manuel Ramos and Dolores Spínola, to create a poetic-musical and multimedia show and an album featuring the 14 composed tracks, which were premiered in November 2025.

On 9 May at 4.00 pm, the show “The Rivers of the Community – Viseu Dão Lafões” will be presented in São Pedro do Sul, in which the poems dedicated to the rivers and streams of the Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community will be read by their author, Luís Costa, coordinator of Binaural Nodar, accompanied by a musical performance (guitar, saxophone, percussion, sound objects and electronics) by the Sax on the Road group. The musical performance is based on a “soundbed” composed of excerpts from soundscapes and ethnographic recordings made throughout the project. Each piece is also accompanied by a video projection edited by Liliana Silva, based on footage shot at each of the rivers and streams in the region.

ARTISTIC AND TECHNICAL CREDITS:
Original concept: Luís Costa
Ethnographic research: Ana Margarida Ferreira, Nely Ferreira, Liliana Silva and Luís Costa
Poetic texts: Luís Costa
Musical performance: Sax on the Road (Dolores Spínola and António Manuel Ramos)
Audiovisual editing: Liliana Silva
Production and communication: Binaural Nodar
Partners: Municipality of São Pedro do Sul, Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community and the European Tramontana Network.