Born in Lisbon, Bernardo Devlin took his first steps in music around 1985 when he was part of the projects Lourenço Marques and As Suas Próteses Dançantes or os Electrodomésticos.
These collectives already included some of the musicians who were involved in the founding of Osso Exótica, a group of capital importance in the history of experimental music at the end of the last century and in which Devlin was also involved.
Thus, in 1989, Bernardo Devlin, together with David Maranha, André Maranha and António Forte, formed Osso Exótica, a group with an experimental and subversive vocation in relation to the then dominant trends in modern Portuguese music. After successive editions of works by this minimalist band, always well received by specialized critics, Devlin chose, in 1991, to move to Berlin, establishing himself as resident composer of the theater company Freies Schauspiel, highlighting, in this context, his compositions for the staging of the plays “Mistero Buffo” by Dario Fo, “Medeamaterial” by Heiner Müller – staged by Thomas Borgmeyer – and “Caligula” by Albert Camus.
In 1993, the author recorded his first solo original work, “World Freehold”, with the unique collaboration of saxophonist Oliver Vogt. This work manifests itself as an intimate experience, in the continuity of the author/composer’s creations, rehearsed while he was still present at Osso Exótica, a project that was definitively left behind by Devlin as his own space for composition and exploration of his own ideas.
In 1997, the second original work “Albedo” was recorded and edited, a work in which the author states his preference for using the Portuguese language in his lyrics, presenting eight songs in a predominantly acoustic recording recorded on a single night in March. that year, at the Cartuxa Church in Paço D’Arcos. At the beginning of 1999, Bernardo Devlin began composing the themes that would give rise to “Circa 1999 (9 Implosões)”, which will only be released in 2003. Finally, in 2008, his most recent work, “Ágio”, will be released.
More of Bernardo Devlin on https://thresholdmagazine.pt/2021/02/bernardo-devlin-em-entrevista-musica.html
