A mesmerically powerful collection of field recordings and remixes of the Brazilian religious and musical ritual tradition of candomblé, originating in the 19th century among enslaved west Africans who used polyrhythmic drumming and chanting circles to induce possession by spirits. Ninety minutes of gripping sounds are together by the Paris-based archival label FLEE, sourced from a community in Salvador in the late 1980s, comprising 10 vividly transportive field recordings, but sometimes hissing distorted, but for that also even more atmospheric drumming and chanting, and 10 tracks of inventive remixes by contemporary artists. The project is also accompanied by a bilingual book, including archival documentation alongside newly commissioned texts and artistic contributions. the oyous voices glimpsed in the distance on Ossaim or the singular male voice that wails movingly before disappearing on Xangô. It’s a truly international collaboration - the remixes include input by Brazilian producer DJ Anderson do Paraiso, French percussionist Vincent Taeger, Portuguese producer Xexa and Swiss artist Jonas Albrecht, and an album to simply throw yourself into and immerse in the energy and ecstasy of sounds and rhythms. From the female chorus and cacophonous percussion on wooden and metal objects opens on Festa lansā, the clattering, thunderous joy on Aluja de lansā, the relentless, mesmeric pounding of Albrecht’s All My Love, the ghostly electronic intertwining with voices on Xexa’s ambient Pluralidades, the solo voice, and walking pace rhythmic bangs and crashes and drones of Felinto’s Yerossum, the mesmeric analogue drumming and scraping soudns of Gabi Guedes & Sávio de Queiroz’s Deitado na Barra, the distant voices on Ossaim, the disappearing male soloist on Xangô who then dissolves in drumming and chanting, the raw, infectious sounds of Ogum, the reverberant clapping, bells, swinging rhythms and evocation of waves on Entrada dos Orixás, or the joyous closer Festas das Labas, it’s an extraordinary collection transporting us powerfully to another time and place where music was the only escape from extraordinary suffering and hardship. Out on FLEE.
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