The tangled, the chaotic, the improbable—the Spanish-Brazilian conspiracy born on Portuguese soil is called La Bagunza.
Emerging in the summer of 2023 in Lisbon, it has been stirring up turmoil across cities, stages, and streets of Europe and Brazil ever since.
This duo-couple, formed by composers and multi-instrumentalists Betina (vocals, piano, guitar) and Pablo Nomás (vocals, bandolim, guitar, violin), paints the clashes of life's journey, encounters with street entities, and the poetry of longing and joy in a music infused with the flavors of rock, blues, and folk from different hemispheres and languages.
BETINA
Born in Madrid, Spain, Betina is a versatile composer and performer with a strong academic and performing background. She achieved honors in contemporary music composition studies at TAI (Madrid, 2016-2020), where she had the privilege of attending masterclasses by esteemed composers and directors such as Gianluca Podio, Marcos Fernández, Israel López Estelche, Claudio Iani, Fernando Martín, and Pablo Gutiérrez among others. In 2020, her contemporary piece "ROTA" was selected for performance by the Spanish contemporary ensemble Vértixe Sonora Colectivo Flexible conducted by Iván Ferrer- Orozco. She also excelled as a top performer at the 21st Century School of Music (Madrid, 2013-2018) under the guidance of singing professor Andrea Lahora. Furthermore, Betina has expanded her creative horizons through poetic and creative writing at The Official Writers School (Madrid, 2022).
In her independent album “Solonli” (2023, co-created with underground Spanish producer Ladr), she embraces the metaverse as a visual concept and intertextuality as a creative technique, discussing the issue of "mental health" in the music narrative. Drawing inspiration from genres ranging from soul to traditional Spanish poetry and electronic performances.
Betina has also composed for several theatrical pieces and audio-visual projects such as Las Horas Muertas (Dir: Alba Nevado, Sala Off, Madrid 2020-2021), Dios Eres Tú Humano (Dir: Amelia Ibarz, Madrid 2020), and Latente (Prod: Alba Gomez Pastrana-Sobrino, 2021) among others, during her professional partnership with Italian composer and producer Greta Ch'aska Rocchi, with whom she created BETA Artistic Projects (2019-2023).
Betina's expertise extends to vocal and stage performance, where she has left an impression on the Madrid, Lisbon, and Brazil music scene since 2012 until today. As a member of neo-jazz bands like Masamadre, Bermuda Bill, the Eduardo Bort Band, and La Bagunza, she has graced iconic venues such as Café Berlín (Madrid), Clamores (Madrid), Sociedade de Instrução Guilherme Cossoul (Lisbon), or Coreto São Pedro da Serra (Rio de Janeiro).
PABLO
Pablo Nomás is a multi-instrumentalist musician (7-string guitar, violin, mandolin, and percussion), composer, arranger, and songwriter. Self-taught, he has turned the streets and crossroads into his stage for almost twenty years, keeping alive the tradition of the old bards and minstrels. Alongside his street performances, he works as a freelance musician on various projects spread across more than 12 countries he has visited, spanning Latin America and Europe.
In 2012, he founded the band Teko Porã in São Paulo, Brazil. This group, named after an ancient philosophy of the Guarani people (indigenous natives of the central region of South America, in territories currently occupied by Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay) which could be translated as "good living" or "beautiful path," became notable for its combative and decolonial discourse, infusing its songs with intense doses of ancestry, mysticism, and social critique.
One of the most remarkable aspects of Teko Porã's journey may be the fact that they lived collectively in the same house, Casa Barco, in São Paulo for the entire 12 years of the band's existence. Virtually all members in their various formations lived together in this house, turning Teko Porã not only into a band but also into a shared life experience. Casa Barco was also the venue for Casa Barco Sessions, an event promoting the São Paulo independent scene with intimate concerts and fiery debates. The debut album, Anamaguaçu (large family, in ancient Tupi), derived its name from this context.
Teko Porã's latest success was the release of the song "Deuses do Metal" (2020), featuring the posthumous participation of writer Eduardo Galeano in an unpublished recording from an interview conducted with the Uruguayan in Montevideo shortly before his death. The song made it to the Hot List #33 of Rolling Stone Brazil.
