This is the debut solo record for Reininho. We had some brainstorming with Rui even before there were demo songs. Actually, the whole process was reverse to what is the usual method when you do an album, a kind of ‘open-ended art’ where you emphasize the process as much as the final product. He already had a name for the album: Companhia das Índias (pun and analogy to the XVI century Portuguese India Company), and he would also invite many Portuguese well known artists, some of them quite improbable, to participate with some songs.
The trickiest part was to make the public realize that this was Rui’s personal project and not another from his band of the last thirty years. Within the theme we studied several solutions, some more daring than others, and the creation of an alter-ego was consensual and an idea that emerged almost immediately. A time traveller, a false dark prince character, Dr. Optimistic, always optimistic, no crisis that will endure with him – a creature completely positive that believes in humanity and spirituality.
It’s not exactly a circus mind-set, it’s almost like a character who spends too much on female assistants and too little on what really matters: props and tricks. Basically this is what happens. Around this a film was made, a medium length film where things appear and disappear, a bit like in nature, as in real life. An isthmus between antiquity and modernity, and all these centuries. The metamorphosis of the Iberian Minotaur. ‘The end of the century mentality is now over, now things have a tendency to become revolutionary good, there will be deaths, there will be deaths and injuries but the trend is to lessen the suffering.’
When we open the cover, the unfolding of the booklet becomes a trip to Dr. Optimistic’s stage, where the performance happens.
The design of the CD itself is a pure Arabian mirror which aims to reinforce the left side of the tray, facing yourself thus making you reflect before you act. It’s inline with Archilochus’ quote: ‘I have a high art: I hurt with cruelty those who wound me.’
The typographic style inside reflects the content of the lyrics.
‘For the minutiae, persistence and presence, Padua is a Florentine in the fine art of creation, so often confused with recreation or simply decoration. Recommended in small doses and under exceptional supervision.’ – Rui Reininho