Ão

Ão is a Belgian quartet formed around Brenda Corijn, Siebe Chau, Jolan Decaestecker and Bert Peyffers, building a project rooted in the intersection of cultural identities, the Lusophone diaspora and European musical spaces. With lyrics in Portuguese and English, Brenda Corijn anchors the writing in her Mozambican and Portuguese roots, while the group develops a collective practice in which each member contributes to shaping a common language, without separating cultural heritage, aesthetic inquiry and pop form. Ão came to attention with the single "Mulher" at the end of 2022, which marked the group's entry into international listening networks and even drew the attention of Seattle radio KEXP. The debut album Ao Mar was released in 2023 and established the group on Belgian and European stages, with concerts at festivals and industry events such as Pukkelpop, Gent Jazz, ESNS, WOMEX and Reeperbahn, as well as in venues like Ancienne Belgique, Botanique and De Roma. There the band develops a stage approach that emphasizes collective presence, the interaction of cultural timbres and the circulation of rhythmic and narrative motifs. In 2025, Ão continues this trajectory with a second album announced, Malandra, scheduled for 2026, which extends the project's founding idea: an open dialogue between memories, cross‑border influences and contemporary writing. The name Ão, which depending on pronunciation can convey astonishment, sadness, beauty or sonic abstraction, acts as a principle: a polyphonic sign, never fixed, reflecting a project built on transformation, embraced ambiguity and hybridity as a creative territory.