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AGBÊS FROM RECIFE


BEAUTIFUL UNIQUE PIECES - SHEKERES FROM OLINDA / RECIFE

Now online! We are happy that we have once again discovered wonderful instruments from a small workshop in Brazil for you. Beautiful, artfully handcrafted shekerés, all unique pieces, made with expertise and love by Biano Pajeú.

Unique pieces - now on stock, pick your favourite!
Many of our instruments we bring to Europe from small, creative and often still unknown workshops in Brazil. Those instruments are unique, just like the artists who make them. Biano Pajeú from Olinda / Recife put years of research and artisan experience in his work, his style has a very special touch that his xequerés absolute unique pieces and even collector's items. Shekerés (or agbês) are naturally grown calabashes, bottle gourds, which all look slightly different and therefore have different sound characteristics and proportions. Biano Pajeú is passionate about working with agbês and knows exactly what matters. Not only does he make the instruments, but he also plays and teaches them. A beautiful addition to our collection - check them out!

A piece of art from northeastern Brazil

Only well grown, evenly stable and optically appealing calabashes may become a shekeré. An elaborately woven net with beads is braided around the hollowed and cleaned pumpkin. In Candomblé, but also in many other music styles, especially in Maracatú, this instrument plays an important role. You can use it as a timekeeper or show effect, you can dance with it and bring movement and colour to the stage. The bigger the shekeré, the louder the sound, because more surface is touched by pearls.

Not every gourd is suitable

A bottle gourd grows only in certain climatic zones, where it is turned daily for months so that it does not develop pressure points during growth. Only a few of the plants are suitable for the production of xequerés. When the calabash is cleaned and processed, you can see the fine wooden grain on its smooth outside.
There are many different ways to play a shekeré. Sounds are not only obtained by the pearl effect, but also by producing a reverberating sound by counter-movements with the flat hand tapping on the underside.

Biano Pajeú - shekeré builder

Biano Pajeú had his first contact with the agbê (as the xequeré is called in Pernambuco) in 2002 when he met a percussion group that played Maracatu in Recife. He taught and learned xequeré playing and dancing with this group. But he was dissatisfied with the quality of the agbês and so he set out to find the ideal instrument. Since 2002, he has been searching, because the fact that he himself plays this instrument, he maintains a close relationship with it which gives him a precise idea of the needs of other xequeré players. His curiosity leads to ever new techniques, which has led to his shekerés being much more than just an instrument. Since the end of 2017, he has only been doing what makes him happy - building shekerés, teaching, playing and dancing with the xequeré.