Ricardo Preschel Hub

Today got an email from a spanish girl I don’t know, that somehow made a little more sense of my life, that looks to me right now. I hope she does not mind me transcribing the email, but will always make part of me and that counts, at least for both.

Thanks Serena

Dear Mr. Preschel. You don’t know me, but I’m a big fan of Quinto Império.

I wanted to write to you, well first, I wished to tell you that I think it was amazing that you escaped from your car crash and survived. I think it is a miracle and you don’t know how happy I am that you survived and are doing well. I believe when this sort of thing happens, it’s because you were meant to continue on to do many more wonderful things in this world, you still have a lot to give to the world.

Many years ago, when I was very young and naïve and I still believed that beautiful things could happen and that dreams could come true, one thing I enjoyed very much doing with my then-husband was to lie together on the sofa after lunch and listen to a program on the radio, I don’t remember the name of it but they always put on new music groups that were coming out, especially ethnic music or New Age. The people on the radio show were very excited and enthusiastic about this new Portuguese music band that had recently come out, they pronosticated a great future for this band and they were sure that these people would bring out many more CD’s and be the successors to Madredeus on the Portuguese music scene. They loved this band and put on some of their music every day.

I’m sure you’ve guessed that that exciting new band was Quinto Império. I loved all of the songs that they put out, I was especially crazy about Vagas and I still am today, today I sometimes listen to Vagas many times at one sitting because I love that song so much.

(Well now while I absolutely looooooove all of the songs on your CD, I suppose my favourite ones, if I could even choose some favourite ones at all because really they’re all my favourites, I guess I would say would be Vagas, Sagres and Luz ou Cruz. This last one I find especially, incredibly haunting and sad.)

However life went on, in those days we were just starting out, we were very poor and buying CD’s wasn’t something that we could afford. We started doing things and we couldn’t listen to the radio after lunch anymore. I stopped thinking about Quinto Império but even though I’ve listened to sooooooooo many new music groups that later on didn’t become famous and everyone forgot about them, I never forgot the name of this band nor their haunting, amazing songs. However I just assumed that these people would become very famous and within a few years, when our personal situation would be more stable and we could afford CD’s, I would just go out and snatch up all the Quinto Império CD’s that would be out there, I was sure they would be as prolific as Madredeus!

So a few years ago I suddenly remembered about that incredible music band that I had fallen in love with, and whose name I had never forgotten, so I was astonished to discover that they had disappeared and their CD was nowhere to be found! I was very busy at that time and didn’t have time to run around all over the place tracking down rare CD’s, so I forgot about the subject. When internet became a household item I tried to google for information about this group, but there was nothing out there about them at that time.

Then last summer the name of the group just popped into my head, so I tried to google them again. You just can’t imagine how absolutely flabbergasted, amazed, astounded and delighted I was to discover that now there was a ton of information about this band on internet! I ran as fast as possible to my nearest Corte Inglés to look for the CD but of course they didn’t have it. But now I could order it online, so I did!

Your music has really changed my life, Mr. Preschel, you could probably never even imagine just how much. It inspired me to believe in my dreams again and to chase after them again. When I feel discouraged I listen to your music and I believe again. I believe in dreams again and I believe that we have the dreams that we have because those are the things that we were meant to accomplish in this world when we were born. The things that we dream of doing are the reason why we decided to even bother coming into the world at all.

It may seem like a paradox to you, because perhaps you think of the Quinto Império project as a *broken dream*, a shattered dream. But I think (with horror!) of what could have happened if you had died in that accident. Perhaps then I would never have discovered the music of Quinto Império, I would have just remained alone with those memories of that mysterious group whose music I loved and who just disappeared. Or perhaps I would have discovered your CD but I would just have spent the rest of my life wondering whatever in the world happened to those amazing people, who they were, where they were now and what they were doing, how people with so much genius for music could just STOP making music and give up!

Anyways I won’t take up any more of your time. I hope you don’t mind that I wrote you this letter and I want to thank you sooooooooo much for taking the time to read it. I wish you ALL THE BEST in the world and that all your dreams may come true!

Oh and may the force be with you too! Serena

Its me who has to thank you, to make it more real and sense to still be alive. Thanks.

So that those who don’t know, I used to be friend and band partner with Teresa Salgueiro, who is the soul of the Portuguese band Madredeus. I did a remastered version of their master piece, O Pastor.

Tags: madredeus, quinto imperio