The human being lives in a confused world and needs to embark on a journey to his interior, a search that connects with his emotions. Pilgrimage means to travel from side to side and is made to look for something: the depths of the soul. This is the case of the new double CD of the Portuguese singer, instrumentalist, composer, arranger and producer Dulce Pontes who from another double 'Momentos' in 2009 did not publish a new album. Five years has led her to shape 'Peregrinaçao' as a artisan of the sounds and the collaboration of António Pinheiro da Silva. Bragança has been the epicenter where Dulce´s commitments to live, have allowed her to concentrate on this conceptual work. The first CD 'Nudez' in Portuguese and the second 'Puertos de Abrigo' primarily in Spanish, with two songs in Galician-Portuguese and one in English . Bragança is located in the northeast region of Trás-Os-Montes and between the studio of his house called “Catacumbas”, where she has rehearsed and recorded, and another of the Trasmontana capital, have become his creative haven. The Namouche studios in Lisbon and the mythical ION of Buenos Aires have made this pilgrimage of Pontes a unique experience like everything that is done with the truth.

The bilingualism of 'Peregrinaçâo', an Iberian claim, is no obstacle for the twenty-two songs that are distributed in the two cd´s maintain a line of musical coherence. The first CD 'Nudez' is worked from the austerity where Dulce Pontes passes from pianist to percussionist of drums, djembes, bottles and everything that can produce sound ( 'Canto do risco', another original composition, with poem of the Brazilian Gastão Neves is a valuable example). This record, however, opens with orchestra, the Rome Sinfonietta and an adaptation that transforms into fado the Adagio of the 'Concert of Aranjuez' by Maestro Joaquín Rodrigo. I had never heard a Portuguese guitar as a solo instrument in this universal piece to which Dulce Pontes has written a beautiful poem. The fado in its origin has presence in 'Grito', a poem of Amália Rodrígues musicalized by Carlos Gonçalves (the same tándem of 'Lágrima'), in which Pontes sings with emotion accompanying herself at the piano and by Marta Pereira da Costa in the Portuguese guitar . 'Alfama' is another fado revisited with Portuguese guitar and Acoustic-Guitar (Fernando Silva and Luis Pontes) composed by Alain Oulman and the poet Ary dos Santos. Dulce Pontes composer puts music to Fernando Pessoa as she did in 1996 with 'O Infante'. Precisely from the poemario 'Message' extracts 'Nevoeiro'. This current theme has a syncopated and strong rhythm with the piano to which the concertina, trio of saxophones and percussions are joined. The voice of Dulce Pontes is harder than usual for an inspired, talented composition with an epic ending that cries the verse "It's time!". The other poem of Fernando Pessoa is the most surreal 'Cancioneiro' with a subtle music of mysterious beauty. 'Va de retro' another original composition, is a popular song, where the mountain woman's singing choirs, extremely sharp, come out of the multi-timbral throat of the Portuguese artist. Amadeu Magalhães plays the guitar of the earth”Toeira” to achieve a harmonious sound. José Afonso, Zeca, is honored with his most popular song 'Grândola Vila Morena', a sign of the carnation revolution. The arrangement is choral - there is no solo voice, again the Portuguese multiplying - with a piano sounding as a music-box and an end with sounds of planets. 'Cantiga da Roda' inspired by the folklore of the Beiras in which Dulce Pontes plays the strings of the piano giving a baroque air. 'Nudez' closes with one of the best compositions of the album 'Ele é que me canta a mim', deep and emotional melody, with piano and Portuguese guitar. 'Bailados do Minho' closes with folk and fast pace with Portuguese tradicional folcloric string instruments.

The trip to the interior of Dulce Pontes continues with a Spanish accent. 'Puertos de Abrigo' takes us to physical and human places where we find protection. The opening comes from the 'Spanish Suite' by Isaac Albéniz. The arpeggios of flamenco guitar by Daniel Casares lead us to a music known as 'Asturias'. Argentine poet and singer-songwriter Raúl Carnota wrote the lyrics but did not get to hear the result since he died in 2014. Dulce Pontes gets into the skin of the intense text and is also the protagonist multiplied in the 'chorus of gitanitas' as she qualifies it where the palms are not lacking in moments of apotheosis. The chanson has its corner in a Spanish version of 'La Bohemia' of Charles Aznavour with only voice and piano. Shivering. The Roma Sinfonietta returns with the baton of Paolo Silvestri and accompanies Dulce Pontes in the tango 'María de Buenos Aires' tango by Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer that the Lusitanian interprets with amazing intensity. On this second record comes another masterpiece: 'Alfonsina y el Mar'. Dulce managed to transform it in a small symphony with choirs as if they came out under the water. The singer of Montijo slows down and plunges the interpretation of this tragedy. It maintains a similar ethereal texture with two cantigas of the Galician-Portuguese troubadour Martin Codax: 'Ai ondas que eu vin veer' and 'Ondas do Mar de Vigo' that represent the dream and the awakening. Attention to the sound of the cosmic mandolin and the dreamy voice of Dulce Pontes. 'Barro y altura' is a composition for this album by the charanguist Jaime Torres with strong folcloric Argentinian roots. The tango 'Vamos Nina' by Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Ferrer was recorded in Buenos Aires with a tangled music that advances like a storm. Dulce dives herself inside the theme and is backed by Juan Carlos Cambas on piano and Walter Ríos with the bandoneón. The calm is appreciated with “Volver” a revisit as a cross between Buenos Aires and Lisbon. Beautiful this version. That tranquility is broken with 'La Leyenda del Tiempo', the poem of García Lorca that Ricardo Pachón musicalized for Camarón in his most transgressive album. Dulce Pontes, who does not sing flamenco, is brilliant with his arabesques with an unusual energy and a flamenco rock atmosphere when an electric guitar is played, an obsessive riff that simulates a bass, the flamenco guitar by Daniel Casares and the tremendous drums of José Pontes, a genius of 14 years-old who is the oldest son of the Portuguese singer. 'La Peregrinación' brings peace and reflection. Dulce Pontes closes in English with '7th Sky' an intimate composition in homage to her Belgian friend the designer Kaat Tilley who died in 2012.

'Pilgrimage' is a journey to the interior, to the emotional, to life in convulsive times. A double cd much needed to walk with a state of consciousness.