Fish & Sheep

Fish & Sheep was a duo formed by Afonso Simões and Jorge Martins. They started in free improvisation sessions in 2004, starting from the combination of drums and guitar, producing a strongly visceral sound on the margins of the most transgressive rock.

The first show took place in February of the following year at Galeria Zé dos Bois (ZDB) in Lisbon. They made their recording debut with the CD-R “Mix Sex With Stupid”, capturing part of a performance at Galeria Zé dos Bois and a part of a show at the bar “O Meu Mercedes é Maior que o Teu” in Porto.

Guitar and drums are resources manipulated to produce an angular sound mass, full of physicality and feedback, in the vertigo of more exploratory rock, but with points of contact also with libertarian jazz. They were challenged by Fua from the record label Lovers & Lollypops to release together with Tropa Macaca a split-CDR called “Para o Inferno com Eles” which they performed live at Passos Manuel, in Porto.

Restricting themselves to a guitar and drums never constituted a limitation for the duo, having even given up the drums in some concerts, in which they used closed circuits and a lot of delays, although they considered that they were more comfortable with the drums. However, his music perfectly integrates other elements such as electronic manipulation or even instruments such as the saxophone and bass.

Having started as pure improvisation, there was at the same time a certain demand. When they go on stage, their natural place, they always have control over the situation, resulting from their deep knowledge of each other’s languages, using means and tricks to achieve something purer, not exuberant. A physical, raw, less cerebral musicality, fired at full speed in thousands of permanent explosions.

Inserted in a movement that emerged at the beginning of the new millennium, integrating bands like Loosers, CAVEIRA, Frango, Tropa Macaca and others, playing in places like ZDB and Lisboa Bar, sharing spaces and editions outside the commercial circuit, motivating each other , to give a better concert than the one they saw, marked a period of strong musical effervescence.

After successive postponements, they released the album “Double Banana” in an edition of 100 copies by Ruby Red Editora. Given that the band considered that none of the CD-Rs released were in the least satisfactory compared to what they did live, the new record was very close to the energy of the duo’s concerts.

Produced by Nathan Lively, the album was recorded at the Incrível Almadense space, where they improvised a studio in one of the corridors, working there uninterruptedly for three days. For the first time, the duo recorded some songs designed and rehearsed before recording, having applied overdubs to one of the songs.

Fish & Sheep went into forced hibernation after Jorge Martins left for the United States, occasionally reappearing for some shows.