Jigsaw is a project from Coimbra born in 1998 initially formed by Filipe (drums), Gonçalo (guitar), João Rui (guitar, vocals) and João Silva (bass). Their first show was only given in 2000, having been held at Bar Le Som. The initial discourse of its elements was still poorly defined, referring their sound to an innocuous “sonic sound”, with references to David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, dEUS, Gore Slut, The Doors, Smashing Pumpkins, Therapy?, Pink Floyd, Metallica, Deftones or Ben Harper.
It was, therefore, an embryonic phase in existential terms, reinforced by the rawness of the music, devoid of bass and drums, which was announced as intentional, created to serve the purposes of the lyrics and create a final result that was somewhat caustic. Linked to the Rewind Music label, A Jigsaw evolved a lot after this phase, with significant changes in its line up. After the release of the EP, “From Underskin” (in 2004) and an album, “Letters From the Boatman” (in 2007), the music stabilized supported by the joint work of Joao Rui (guitar, harmonica, banjo, mandolin, vocals), Susana Ribeiro (violin, xylophone, vocals, percussion) and Jorri (electric bass, drums, percussion).
The sound was given over to folk, country and blues. Over time, they came to assume themselves as a multi-instrumentalist trio, surprising the public with songs featuring a wide range of instruments. From his box of surprises you can lift a guitar and a harmonica, a banjo and a double bass, the most varied percussions (from castanets to the traditional bass drum no. 9), keyboards, violin, Glockenspiel, harmonium, melodica, autoharp and ukulele.
In his resume, we can find the live performance on the fourteenth anniversary commemorative program of Antena 3. The single “Lion’s Eyes Louder” reached first place in the top A3-30 of the same radio, where it remained for several weeks, two of them in second place. After finishing a tour they called “Boatman’s Tour 2008”, they headed to several concert halls under the banner of “Living Room Tour”, which ended with a new entry into the studio to record a new long-play.
In October of that year, however, they were invited by Antena 1 to participate in a program about a very special event: the launch of a collection of songs by David Bowie. From this experience, a version of the song “Rebel, Rebel” was created. In 2009 they released “Like the Wolf”, an album that featured special guest appearances by Becky Lee (vocals) and two members of the band Soaked Lamb, Gito (bass) and Miguel Lima (drums) and Carlos Ramos (drums). After re-releasing the album in an “uncut” version, they hit the road and were very well received by both the national public and those in several European countries where they were invited to play.
In 2011 they released a new work entitled “Drunken Sailors and Happy Pirates”.
