Luís Bettencourt

Luís Gil Bettencourt began playing in bands as a child. Dedicate to music throughout all of his life, he formed a band called Viking with brothers Roberto Bettencourt (bass), Nuno Bettencourt (guitar) later guitarist of Extreme), and Paul at the sound board. He then went back to his native country Portugal in the 80`s to "shake" the Azores` musical scene. An amazing musician, Luís rediscoved the musical roots from the Azores` traditional and popular music. While in America, Luís was always surrounded by amazing american musicians, and of course by his brothers Roberto and Nuno. Having been into progressive rock for a while, when he went back to Portugal, Luis rediscovered his passion for the traditional portuguese music. Luís has also produced albums such as: "A Vez Primeira" (GVIT/92) by Grupo de Violas da Ilha Terceira, "Monte Formoso" (89) by Brigada Victor Jará, "O Cantar na m' incomoda" (D.R.Cultura/ 98) and "Dança das Fitas" (Casa V. Nemésio/ 2000) by Carlos Medeiros. He has also participated in the album "Traz-os-montes" (EMI-VC/94) by Né Ladeiras and the participation with the song "Nado Morto", a poem by Vitorino Nemésio, in the album "Manifestasons" (ACERT/96). Joining Luís for this song is Paulo Borges, a young Azorean musician, on the piano. Luís composed the song “Lavadeira”, with the lyrics by the popular poet João Teixeira de Medeiros. The song is on the album "Açores, Um Convite" (Henda/85), by Victor Cruz. The album is also produced by Luís. On his own discography, we can mention the long-awaited album called “Empty Space”. He released the singles for “If there`s a reason/ In-Out” and “Tema d`Amor", the LP “Bilingual” and the CD “Antero”, where he put music to the poems of Antero. A very beautiful and sentimental CD. Luís also was in the band of José Medeiros for the TV presentations and in the production of the songs included on the CD "7 Anos de Música" (Disrego/92). Luís has his name associated with the new way of “feeling” the most azorean musical instrument. With virtuosism, lots of technique and sensibility, sometimes respecting the tradition, sometimes reinventing without barriers, Luís proved lots of times that an instrument, like the “viola da terra” can have all kind of sounds not listened before. It`s this feeling for the mysteries and secrets of the portuguese popular music that makes the ground for Luís persistent walk in front of the band “Balada do Atlântico”, formely “Cantinho da Terceira”. This year, Luís produced his band partner`s first solo CD “Susana Coelho & Trio”(Casa V. Nemésio/2000) & is playing some shows with his “Balada do Atlântico”.