Accompanied by his colleague, acoustic guitar player Carlos Manuel, Custódio plays his own music. At intervals Cristina Maria, Custódios newest discovery, sings old classical Fado and new Fado, written for her by Custódio Castelo.
"Onde as Artes se cruzam num só Sentimento"; "Where the arts meet in one singular feeling". That is what you will experience, listening to the concerts of the Custódio Castelo Fado Trio.
Custódio Castelo (1966) was educated as a classical guitarist. At the age of seven he built his first musical instrument from which came his first sounds and at thirteen he was given his first real instrument, an acoustic guitar. He joined some popular portuguese music groups and rock bands, but his curiosity about the mysterious sound produced by the Portuguese guitar made him try new avenues. His knowledge of composition was gained at the Gregorian Institute in Lisbon and this gave him the advantage of being able to gain ground quickly. Large audiences everywhere are starting to recognize Castelo's name in connection with his accompaniment of famous fado personalities, like Amália Rodrigues.
National and international critics see his abilities as an accompanist and as a composer, particularly in his work with the singer Cristina Branco, as the crucial impulse for the evolution and spread of the fado in recent years.
At sixteen, listening to recordings of Amália Rodrigues, he discovered the sound of the Portuguese guitar and since then it has been his chosen instrument. From a young age Castelo was considered a prodigy for his audacious and different approach to the Portuguese guitar and his talent has been recognized by the most demanding "fadistas" of these time.
He accompanied Amália Rodrigues on her last American tour. Also in 1998 Castelo became mentor to the Cristina Branco project, exposing world wide his genius as a composer, producer, arranger and instrumentalist. "O Descobridor" his most important and daring work as a composer. The record is wholly dedicated to the work of the Dutch Poet Jan Jacob Slauerhoff and composed entirely by Custódio Castelo, rising to prominence with first place in the "top" composers for that year. O Descobridor went platinum in Holland and its themes were later orchestrated by Bob Zimerman.
His versatility has never allowed him to be solely a fado accompanist, he has never been chained to the forms of fado, having been exposed to diverse influences as an adolescent and bringing to the Portuguese guitar his personal tastes for other musical genres.