Pedro Melo Alves - Triggering Memory
Vexation of Spirit. The Duerckheim Collection x Serralves
In this 60-minute site-specific performance, presented as part of the exhibition Vexation of Spirit. The Duerckheim Collection x Serralves, the acoustic drum kit becomes a system of political and aesthetic counterpoint. In direct dialogue with the works inhabiting the gallery — shaped by reflections on memory, trauma and the structures of power of the past 70 years — the percussion activates and shapes, in real time, a sound archive of samples and speeches drawn from contemporary culture.
Building on the vocabulary of Pedro Melo Alves’s acoustic drumming, each strike and dynamic gesture acts as a trigger for a parallel electronic layer, deconstructing sound fragments charged with sociopolitical meaning. The instrument’s acoustic presence becomes a vector through which voices, noises and samples from the present emerge, creating a constantly shifting architecture of sound. Moving between rigorous improvisation and technological control, the performance establishes a living dialogue with the surrounding works, transforming the gallery into a space of critical resonance, where the historical memory of contemporary art converges with the urgencies of the present day.
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Pedro Melo Alves is one of the most prominent drummers and composers on Portugal’s avant-garde music scene in recent years. An explorer of the expanded possibilities of percussion, improviser, composer for both small and large ensembles, and curator, his work is characterised by an exploratory attitude and an ambitious crossing of aesthetic territories, ranging from jazz and classical music to electronic and experimental music. His work has received several distinctions, including the Bernardo Sassetti Composition Prize, El Intruso Revelation Band 2021, and the Premio Internazionale Giorgio Gaslini. He has collaborated with international artists across the fields of music, performance, and cinema, including Tony Malaby, Sun Ra Arkestra, Ingrid Laubrock, Peter Evans, Leo Genovese, Camila Nebbia, Eve Risser, Susana Santos Silva, Mark Dresser, Sara Serpa, Jim Black, Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Hery Paz, Joe Morris, Meg Stuart, Vera Mantero, Peter Kleinert, and Gaya de Medeiros. Over the years, he has performed at venues and festivals including The Public Theater (USA), Suoni Per Il Popolo (Canada), Funarte (Brazil), jazzahead! (Germany), the European Jazz Conference (Portugal), Europavox (France), Le Botanique (Belgium), Bimhuis (Netherlands), Porgy & Bess (Austria), Budapest Music Centre (Hungary), RoteFabrik (Switzerland), Dampfzentrale (Switzerland), Saalfelden Jazz Festival (Austria), Ljubljana Jazz Festival (Slovenia), Belgrade Jazz Festival (Serbia), 12 Points Festival (Ireland), Südtirol Jazz Festival (Italy), Primavera Sound (Portugal), Paredes de Coura (Portugal), Alkantara (Portugal), and Jazz em Agosto (Portugal). Born in Porto in 1991, Pedro Melo Alves studied Jazz Drums at ESMAE, Porto (2011), Jazz and Classical Piano at ESTAL, Lisbon (2014), and Musical Composition at ESML, Lisbon (2015). Currently a fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Pedro leads and composes for projects including his Omniae Large Ensemble, the multimedia project ΞllllllΞ:MATER, The Rite of Trio, and In Igma. He was an artist-in-residence at Galeria Zé dos Bois with the improvisation series Conundrum. He performs in percussion duos with João Pais Filipe and Pedro Carneiro, and is a member of several international projects, including HIIT, the Luís Vicente Trio, and Alma Tree with Ra Kalam Bob Moses and Vasco Trilla, as well as indie bands such as Surma and Memória de Peixe. Alongside these projects, Pedro composes for theatre, dance, and film, receives commissions for classical music, and curates music programmes at Água Ardente in Lisbon.
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