Audeo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The audEo project appeared in the 1980s, managed by a group of friends with activities in music creation (Fiori del Fiume), music marketing (Dansa do Som, Salt'Ibérico, k7 xunga), concert production (Colectivo Novo Fogo e Arte, Luís Armastrondo, audEo produções), radio production (Rádio Universitária do Porto), alternative press (Da Frente, Confidências do Exílio, Escupe, Nuvens, Blitz, se7e, Anonyme) and design. Their aim was to work with a wide range of new music creators, from academic to underground.
Their name came from the word "audEo", taken from a Latin dictionary: meaning audacity, to dare or to undertake, and being confused with "audio".
In the summer of 1991 there were only three members (because two of the original founders left the project and a new member was incorporated). That November they opened a small shop (so small that they adopted a flea as their logo.) AudEo then started the Portuguese distribution of some important record labels interested in innovative music. For the promotion of these label releases, between 1994 and 1998 audEo published a small free news leaflet, called Minimal, featuring contributions from musicians and critics like Jorge Lima Barreto, Rui Eduardo Paes and Rui Neves. Beside that, audEo was also responsible for radio shows such as ObSessões [ObSessions] and Pressões Digitais [Digital Pressures] (both at Rádio Press), and Discos Impedidos [meaning Unasked Records and Hindered Records] (at Rádio Nova).
In 1997, finally, audEo initiated itself as record label, starting with Release From Tension, by the Portuguese violinist Carlos Zíngaro. Following with projects by musicians like Carlos Bechegas, Ernesto Rodrigues & Jorge Valente, Vítor Rua's Dis Nasti Dog, Américo Rodrigues, Alexandre Soares, Philippe de Sousa and others, audEo records have been released in several countries.
In 2003 audEo shop was closed and the company became a small individual business run by the main founder, Luís Freixo, focusing on mail order, together with record label activity, disc production and some new music distribution working in background.
