Recorded in June 1971 and released the following month, Sociedade da Grã-Ordem Kavernista can be seen as the Frank Zappa’s Freak Out! to Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis’s Sgt Pepper. More subversive and more experimental than the tropicalist manifesto that had served as one of its main inspirations, the collective album was cursed from the get-go, condemned to premature oblivion by a mix of promotional faux-pas and the tightening of the Brazilian dictatorship.
Category: Brazil
Janine :: Muda
Just like the early MPB of Marília Medalha, Nara Leão, and Elis Regina, Janine Price’s music comes from the theater tradition, where she built her musical persona and developed warping intonation techniques. Just like their early MPB too, her music is centered on the tenor vocal range, which prepares grand orchestrations to a sequence of unexpected soft landings.
Nyron Higor :: S/T
Nyron Higor’s self-titled sophomore LP starts with a slow-motion frevo that drags amidst the reverb as if it was played inside a ghost motel. It is a perfect encapsulation of the Brazilian multi-instrumentalist’s new release: clouds of sonic niceties sculpted from the ruins of library music. Here, bird-like whistles and tremolos emerge into eerie atmospheres, from which they seem detached, like ground and figure.
Rogê :: Curyman II
Rogê is steeped in bossa nova tradition, building lush, rhythmically restless compositions that are light as air but resonant with feeling. Here in his second U.S. released solo album, the Brazilian native now living in LA, pays tribute to the genre’s masters, covering João Donato’s “A Rã,” “A Força,” from his collaborative album with Seu Jorge and “Lendo Do Abaeté” a song made famous by Dorival Caymmi, while also taking the form in new directions with original material.
Werther :: 1970 S/T
A fine fit for the coming turn of the season, Brazilian singer and guitarist Werther’s 1970 self-titled album is a warm and inviting document of gentle, airy bossa-nova, the music lively and eclectic with folk and Tropicália inflections and adorned with sumptuous orchestral arrangements and choral gatherings.
Caetano Veloso :: Bicho
Recorded in 1977 following a performance at the Negro Festival of Art and Culture in Lagos and a month immersed in the city with his comrade Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso’s Bicho is a shimmering and rapturous entry in the Brazilian legend’s indelible catalog, one in which the influence of African culture, particularly Jùjú music, coalesces stunningly with funky, orchestral MPB, jazz-laced lounge, and soulful cosmic folk.
Waltel Branco :: Meu Balanço
One of the unrecognized masters of Brazilian music, Waltel Branco seemed to have been everywhere from the 1940s to the 1970s, Zelig-like. As the director of the Som Livre studios of Rede Globo, he produced most major records of Brazilian music history, with more than three thousand official credits and a few thousand more in dispute, for wildly different works, from the afro-folk of J.B. de Carvalho to the samba of Elizeth Cardoso to the bossa nova of João Gilberto to the tropicália of Gal Costa to the soul funk of Tim Maia.
Bruno Berle :: No Reino Dos Afetos 2
Born in Maceió, in the Brazilian Northeast, Bruno Berle gives bossa nova the hyperpop treatment it deserves (should we call it hyperbossa?). No Reino dos Afetos 2 filters Arthur Russell-like melodies through inventive uses of autotune and DAW presets.
Grimório de Abril :: Castelo D’Água
A new release, Castelo D’Água, comes out now via the incredibly consistent Brazilian micro-label Municipal K7. It maintains the characteristic amplitude of Sanchez’ landscapes while attaining more closely to the wetness indexed in reverb. The tracks follow what Bachelard would call the homology between water and dreams: the oneiric as a fluid substance, a liquid flow, or rather a submersion into pre-formal matter.
Jarbas Mariz :: Transas Do Futuro
Jarbas Mariz was underground even in his ‘rediscovery’ as a Brazilian gem: when a first reissue of the 1977 7″ Transas do Futuro came out in 2012, it was in a limited edition of numbered copies. Now, Mr. Bongo shines a belated light on Mariz’s solo debut, a delight of lo-fi psych folk, mystic poetry, and free experiments with the musical traditions of Brazil’s Northeast.
Fabiano Do Nascimento :: Mundo Solo
Fabiano do Nascimento seems weary of the “Brazilian music” label, at least when it ties him to particular artistic expectations. He prefers to aim for an impossible universality than to ever be pigeonholed to an ideal of national sound. His new solo material, out via Brazilian music aficionados Far Out, complicates this ambivalence.
Airto & Flora – A Celebration: 60 Years – Sounds, Dreams & Other Stories
There’s an embarrassment of riches to be found on Airto & Flora – A Celebration: 60 Years – Sounds, Dreams & Other Stories, the latest compilation from London’s always dazzling BBE label, this time documenting the work of Brazilian jazz power couple Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. Compiling thirty tracks across just about as many years (1964 through 1996) from the various solo and collaborating outings of the duo (now in their sixty-first year as union), the set examines their evolving alchemy of samba, bossa nova, jazz-fusion, and outré-funk excursions.
Nana Caymmi e César Camargo Mariano :: Não Diga Não
In “Não Diga Não”, part of Voz e Suor (1983), with maestro Cesar Camargo Mariano, Nana Caymmi is covering not bossa nova but an obscure Tito Madi song, of the samba-canção generation, a crooner-inspired genre which bossa nova was precisely reacting against.
Sessão de Verão 4 :: Ana Frango Elétrico – No Promises Or Predictions
It has been almost 4 years since the release of Little Electric Chicken Heart but Ana Frango Elétrico has remained busy in the meantime, appearing on over 20 albums as a vocalist or instrumentalist.
Ente :: Eternamente Sua
Ente is the main project of Arthur Bittencourt, one of the most promising names of contemporary Brazilian music. “eternamente sua”, the band’s second ever single (and the first from a debut record scheduled for this year), sounds like Clube da Esquina if they had been heavily into shoegaze. Bittencourt says he was influenced by Popol Vuh and Shostakovich as well as by the landscapes of Minas Gerais.