The documentary Narcissus Off Duty (2020) is a deep dive through Caetano Veloso’s own oral history into his imprisonment from the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1968. It is a minimalistic and poignant film based mainly on Veloso’s account... Read Article
Codirected by Ricardo Calil and Renato Terra, who had previously worked together in the documentaries A Night in 67 (2010) and I am Carlos Imperial (2016), the film is a deep dive through Caetano Veloso’s own oral history into his imprisonment from the Brazilian military dictatorship in 1968.
Latin America has a tortured history of democracy deferred by brutal dictatorships that were nearly endemic on the continent until the end of the last century. To oppose them, a number of nations cultivated a mighty aesthetic of... Read Article
“The sounds of the Amazon are the base of my music”, Vanessa da Mata explains to me. “I really believe that this is the origin. The source, everything else grows on it”. As her name suggests, Vanessa da... Read Article
We don’t know what it is but seemingly every few years it seems like half of Brazil passes through London as gig after gig of top quality Brazilian music gets confirmed for the capital. Maybe it’s a World... Read Article
Mexico has been a cultural dynamo, welcoming and nurturing artists from the Latin world and beyond, drawn to its ever-expanding and always-experimenting cultural sphere. The names are exhaustive: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Tina Modotti, Chavela Vargas, Luis Buñuel, Roberto... Read Article
Four years ago Paulo Beto and Pedro Zopellar were invited to perform their Acqua Space Ritual at a cultural and sports centre in Araraquara, the interior of São Paulo. The robed musicians performed a ritual about the origins... Read Article
It’s always with immense pleasure that we publish any mixtape from Epic Vinyls From Brazil, and this latest is no different. Filled with incendiary Brazilian psych, funk and soul from the 60s and 70s this is the epitome... Read Article
It’s been 10 years since Zeca Pagodinho last played a show in London, but on the 29th November he returns to the English capital to perform one night only at the Hammersmith Eventim Apollo, celebrating 100 years of... Read Article
“Smiling kids, hip dancing, nightmares around them trying to steal their happiness and everybody […] busy doing their homework” are the most distinct memories that Emicida brought back home from his trip to Africa. Last year, the Brazilian... Read Article
She is a star of Brazilian MPB (música popular brasileira), a multi-instrumentalist, whose incredibly soothing and delicate voice is immediately recognizable. Carlinhos Brown is known to have said her voice is “one of the most perfect in the... Read Article
When I spoke to Jorge Drexler last year about Bailar En La Cueva – his latest album and undoubtedly his most rhythmic to date – it seemed clear that his influences had grown over the years. The sounds... Read Article
