In 1755, on November 1, a tragedy of unprecedented proportions occurred in Lisbon. An earthquake followed by a tsunami and a conflagration with thousands of deaths. Until today the worst natural disaster in Europe. This of all things on All Saints’ Day, the day on wich the dead are commemorated. These circumstances led to a change of thinking in society, also known as the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment.
By chance, the Portuguese guitar maker Adriano Sergio came across old Mahogany barrels belonging to Marques de Pombal. In 1755, this same person was the kings right hand man and responsible for the reconstruction of Lisbon.
Together with Uli Teuffel, Adriano developed the idea to involve other luthiers and each builds a guitar, which should have the historical event as a theme.
The Guitar Barrel Project was born!
But how can you even begin to reflect such an unbelievable event in a guitar?
Chaos, tragedies, suffering, pain, doubts, fears? On the other hand, reconstruction, hope, solidarity, new beginnings, confidence to tread new path?
A huge task, which demanded a lot of thought and investigation and probably consumed more conceptional time than the actual construction itself.
Our original idea, to build a guitar and then destroy it at the presentation, was out of the question at the latest when it was said that the 6 guitars should remain as a group… 🙂
From the beginning it was clear to us that we could not simply build a guitar as we are used to.
The old wood alone deserved a respectful handling and a worthy presentation.
Fascinating the still existing impacts of the axe, which a craftsman drove into the wood more than 250 years ago. We were eager to preserve these traces at all costs.
We realized that we would have to work with a brute, clear implementation.
But we didn’t want to be too bold, the theme of the instrument should be in a simple and contemporary language.
And as always, it must be a perfect functional guitar.
