Between music and the arts
Luís Roquette began Equipment Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts, but left the course in the very first class. He felt that was not his path, so he stood up and walked out.
He went on to train at the Hot Club de Portugal, where he explored sounds, instruments and improvisation.
Old fado
Since he was fifteen or sixteen he has been drawn to the fado of Carlos Ramos, Maria Teresa de Noronha, Amália, Frei Hermano da Câmara and João Ferreira Rosa. He wanted to understand why that generation sang and what drew it to poems.
The aesthetic of the 1950s and 60s remains one of his chosen contexts.
Word and silence
The Bible and the Eucharist, which he attends several times a week to listen to the silence and observe people, shape his compositions.
He writes less about what happens to him in love and more about a light that comes from outside, passes through him and goes out again. For Luís Roquette, any art is deep prayer, and we need poets who sing the spiritual dimension of life, beyond passions and human constructions.
Source
The path and words of Luís Roquette in this text summarise the interview he gave to Agência Ecclesia on 14 August 2024.
Read the interview at Agência Ecclesia (in Portuguese)
Website proposal, to be approved by Luís Roquette before it is presented as official.