Trafiklys is an incidental composition/ improvisation duo comprised of two young and active portuguese musicians: Duarte Ventura and João Gato.
Duarte Ventura is a 23-year-old vibraphonist and composer who, after studying jazz vibraphone in the Professional Jazz Instrumentalist Course at the Coimbra Conservatory of Music, entered the Lisbon Superior School of Music. He leads his own original music groups – Godua, Duarte Ventura Trio and Quinteto (winner of the 2023 Young Musicians Award). He also integrates several groups as a sideman, such as Apophenia and the quintet of singer and composer Marta Rodrigues.
On the album “Trafiklys” – recorded at Timbuktu studios in July 2023 by André Fernandes – Gato and Ventura present compositions by both in an approach to duo improvisation without prejudice, through mutant reinventions of standards, and their own compositions, in which time and form become dubious concepts, but always present. They prioritize «interaction and communication between two instruments that seek an astounding language.»