Darío González Moreira

Darío Moreira’s multicultural origins reflect a wide variety of influences in his compositions. He was born in Buenos Aires in 1962, into a family of Italian-Argentine and Portuguese-Galician emigrants, who returned to Galicia in 1964. He grew up in the town of O Porriño, in an “indianos” house run by his paternal grandmother. The rhythmic sound of the train, which crosses the town through the center, is part of his first sound memories. His mother, Lucía Moreira, a native of the province of Santa Fe (Argentina), transmitted her culture to him through literature, gastronomy and music. Since he was a child he had contact with the tango of the Rio de la Plata and argentine folklore; He learned the generic “palos” of flamenco with the gypsy community, and participated in several popular music groups. He studied Classical Guitar with professors Javier Fernández Oria, Uxío Mayo and Tomás Camacho at the Vigo Superior Conservatory of Music (Galicia), where he had the opportunity to receive master classes from maestro José Tomás, who highlighted his expressive strength. He also participated with teachers and students in jazz sessions, learning in a self-taught way. Within the folk music scene, he formed the group Na Lúa, together with Paz Antón, Pancho Álvarez, Antón Rodríguez and Ricardo Pereiro, performing a copious work as an arranger and composer on the traditional music repertoire of Galicia. They recorded 5 albums and performed at the main folk music festivals, being one of the Galician groups with more projection in the 80′s, and awarded with the Galician Critics Prize in 1989. Faced with the need to resolve the aftermath of a youthful fracture in his left arm, he started to use in an intuitive way technique similar to the renaissance “dedillo”, which consists of the alternate pulsation of the fingertip and fingernail. This allowed him to perform scales and melodic phrases at great speed, and also, to apply this resource on acoustic and electric guitar, getting the effect of the pick with the fingers. By observing this way of playing the string on many instruments from different times and cultures, he deepens the study of world music, applying innovative guitar techniques in his compositions and developing the capacity for improvisation, from a language full of rhythmic, melodic, harmonic and timbre resources.