Latin | Brazil 413 Items

Bruno Berle, the young songwriter and poet originally hailing from Maceió, the capital of Brazil’s Alagoas state, crafts songs that are simple, direct, and full of tender nuance. With his first album No Reino Dos Afetos (which translates to "In the Realm of Affections” and was released in 2022), Berle firmly established himself as a unique and important voice in the burgeoning scene of new Brazilian artists making a global impact, including peers like Ana Frango Elétrico, Tim Bernardes, Bala Desejo, Sessa and more. Now back with his second album, No Reino Dos Afetos 2, he stretches that further.

Bruno Berle’s music lives between two worlds – a traditional Brazilian folk talent steeped in history, and a contemporary, dreamy electronic pop; the result is songwriting that’s genre-bending, intentional, iconoclastic and consuming, spacious and sinewy and singular, a striking reflection of its composer while leaving space for the listener to settle in. The album follows Bruno’s relocation to São Paulo, and the songs are a reflection of his past and present. A rebuke of former categorizations of his work in Brazilian music scenes, and an idea of where his music can move, unfettered.

Berle’s music is purposeful in being a true portrait of himself, and a reflection of the music, art, and fashion scenes he personally moves through. Berle aims to provide an entrypoint for Black queer joy in his music, in his storytelling, in his presence and vision as a creative. For him, it feels subversive to be playing MPB laced with dubstep and lo-fi, a sort of intentional sacrilege, capturing a dialogue of modernity in traditional music.

Berle wrote most of the arrangements and co-produced his new album, Reino Dos Afetos 2 with longtime friend and musical partner Batata Boy, who is also from Maceió; the album was recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Maceió, and São Paulo, his new home, and picks up the conversation begun in 2022 on Berle’s debut album No Reino dos Afetos. Both records are the result of a nonlinear but coherent seven-year music creation process culminating in these albums, holding hands across space and time.

“Tirolirole,” the first single from the record, was released at the end of 2023; sun-soaked rhythms and soft voice coat the song, the lilting refrain of “Tirolirole” throughout – hushed, gentle, but somehow almost tactile, a golden-hour moment unlocked in the mind. “Tirolirole” is a triumphant future classic about the temporality of a blossoming love, with Bruno’s stunning vocal soaring over melodies which ebb and flow like the waters on the Atlantic shore. Of the track, Berle explains: “Despite ‘Tirolirole’ being an expression that evokes my childhood, just like the light words about nature, the harmony, and the poetry are epic, carrying a great hope for love.”

In fact, the guiding theme of No Reino dos Afetos 2 is a relationship, unfolding in the arc of a weekend. It traverses the innocence of an early young love, how that can be formative, can stretch on to take new shapes, or shape you. The album happens at the genesis of meeting someone and falling for them, before the relationship is thrown into overdrive – set in a big city, against a backdrop of major life changes, rising energy, the sound of São Paulo.

Something transcendental emerges in “Dizer Adeus,” with an arrangement that echoes a gospel atmosphere (evangelical and Catholic environments were pivotal to Berle’s upbringing). On “É Só Você Chegar,” piano and flute gracefully intertwine, a dance, while “Quando Penso” skews sparser, the voice-and-guitar minimalism somehow cultivating an entirely different shape – somehow both cozy and melancholy, with the background sound of a rainy day. Coupled with the lo-fi aspects that shape much of the album’s personality in the vocals and the production, No Reino Dos Afetos 2 is meticulously elaborated by Berle’s sonic alchemy, like on the mid-album instrumental “Sonho,” which feels like floating. “It’s the apex. It’s when lovers are sleeping together,” Berle explains of the feeling he wanted to encapsulate in the song.

On “Love Comes Back” Berle interprets Arthur Russell, the late Iowa musician who only reached greater visibility after he died in 1992. “His way of making music is similar to mine,” Berle explains. “He sings in a more fragile way, has more of an experimental way of recording, letting ‘chance’ appear in the final work.”

Even so, Berle doesn’t want his music to be buried in sentimentality – and the purposefulness of his craft serves as a sort of north star. The production, the arrangements, his restraint and intentionality in crafting his songs feel just as vital as their emotional cores. His songwriting is amorphous, fluid, an encompassing genre-bending movement in-and-of-itself, quietly daring. The songs are often in conversation with other works – drinking in fountains as diverse as the filmmaking of Ingmar Bergman, the poetry of Walt Whitman, the rhythm of Djavan, and the painting of Maxwell Alexandre. Musically he weaves together a rich tapestry of Brazilian folk, UK 2-step garage/dub, trip hop and sun soaked west coast songwriters; something akin to the worlds of Milton Nascimento, Arthur Russell, James Blake, Feist, and Sade colliding into one. But even then No Reino Dos Afetos 2 floats separately, a romanticism driven by a simplicity and intimacy, an open-ended possibility, Berle’s singularity as an artist at the helm of the ship.

Bruno Berle, the young songwriter and poet originally hailing from Maceió, the capital of Brazil’s Alagoas state, crafts songs that are simple, direct, and full of tender nuance. With his first album No Reino Dos Afetos (which translates to "In the Realm of Affections” and was released in 2022), Berle firmly established himself as a unique and important voice in the burgeoning scene of new Brazilian artists making a global impact, including peers like Ana Frango Elétrico, Tim Bernardes, Bala Desejo, Sessa and more. Now back with his second album, No Reino Dos Afetos 2, he stretches that further.

Bruno Berle’s music lives between two worlds – a traditional Brazilian folk talent steeped in history, and a contemporary, dreamy electronic pop; the result is songwriting that’s genre-bending, intentional, iconoclastic and consuming, spacious and sinewy and singular, a striking reflection of its composer while leaving space for the listener to settle in. The album follows Bruno’s relocation to São Paulo, and the songs are a reflection of his past and present. A rebuke of former categorizations of his work in Brazilian music scenes, and an idea of where his music can move, unfettered.

Berle’s music is purposeful in being a true portrait of himself, and a reflection of the music, art, and fashion scenes he personally moves through. Berle aims to provide an entrypoint for Black queer joy in his music, in his storytelling, in his presence and vision as a creative. For him, it feels subversive to be playing MPB laced with dubstep and lo-fi, a sort of intentional sacrilege, capturing a dialogue of modernity in traditional music.

Berle wrote most of the arrangements and co-produced his new album, Reino Dos Afetos 2 with longtime friend and musical partner Batata Boy, who is also from Maceió; the album was recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Maceió, and São Paulo, his new home, and picks up the conversation begun in 2022 on Berle’s debut album No Reino dos Afetos. Both records are the result of a nonlinear but coherent seven-year music creation process culminating in these albums, holding hands across space and time.

“Tirolirole,” the first single from the record, was released at the end of 2023; sun-soaked rhythms and soft voice coat the song, the lilting refrain of “Tirolirole” throughout – hushed, gentle, but somehow almost tactile, a golden-hour moment unlocked in the mind. “Tirolirole” is a triumphant future classic about the temporality of a blossoming love, with Bruno’s stunning vocal soaring over melodies which ebb and flow like the waters on the Atlantic shore. Of the track, Berle explains: “Despite ‘Tirolirole’ being an expression that evokes my childhood, just like the light words about nature, the harmony, and the poetry are epic, carrying a great hope for love.”

In fact, the guiding theme of No Reino dos Afetos 2 is a relationship, unfolding in the arc of a weekend. It traverses the innocence of an early young love, how that can be formative, can stretch on to take new shapes, or shape you. The album happens at the genesis of meeting someone and falling for them, before the relationship is thrown into overdrive – set in a big city, against a backdrop of major life changes, rising energy, the sound of São Paulo.

Something transcendental emerges in “Dizer Adeus,” with an arrangement that echoes a gospel atmosphere (evangelical and Catholic environments were pivotal to Berle’s upbringing). On “É Só Você Chegar,” piano and flute gracefully intertwine, a dance, while “Quando Penso” skews sparser, the voice-and-guitar minimalism somehow cultivating an entirely different shape – somehow both cozy and melancholy, with the background sound of a rainy day. Coupled with the lo-fi aspects that shape much of the album’s personality in the vocals and the production, No Reino Dos Afetos 2 is meticulously elaborated by Berle’s sonic alchemy, like on the mid-album instrumental “Sonho,” which feels like floating. “It’s the apex. It’s when lovers are sleeping together,” Berle explains of the feeling he wanted to encapsulate in the song.

On “Love Comes Back” Berle interprets Arthur Russell, the late Iowa musician who only reached greater visibility after he died in 1992. “His way of making music is similar to mine,” Berle explains. “He sings in a more fragile way, has more of an experimental way of recording, letting ‘chance’ appear in the final work.”

Even so, Berle doesn’t want his music to be buried in sentimentality – and the purposefulness of his craft serves as a sort of north star. The production, the arrangements, his restraint and intentionality in crafting his songs feel just as vital as their emotional cores. His songwriting is amorphous, fluid, an encompassing genre-bending movement in-and-of-itself, quietly daring. The songs are often in conversation with other works – drinking in fountains as diverse as the filmmaking of Ingmar Bergman, the poetry of Walt Whitman, the rhythm of Djavan, and the painting of Maxwell Alexandre. Musically he weaves together a rich tapestry of Brazilian folk, UK 2-step garage/dub, trip hop and sun soaked west coast songwriters; something akin to the worlds of Milton Nascimento, Arthur Russell, James Blake, Feist, and Sade colliding into one. But even then No Reino Dos Afetos 2 floats separately, a romanticism driven by a simplicity and intimacy, an open-ended possibility, Berle’s singularity as an artist at the helm of the ship.

Although perhaps not a household name like Sergio Mendes, Marcos Valle or Flora Purim, Bororó is considered to be one of the most important and talented Brazilian musicians of his time. Taking his moniker from the indigenous people of his country, who live in the state of Mato Grosso, Bororó steadily built his career for well over a quarter of a century, along the way performing live and in the studio with such legends as Gal Costa, Milton Nascimento and Caetano Veloso.

La Sonora Mazuren is the latest addition to the already rich indie-tropical scene out of Bogotá, Colombia. Deeply rooted in the popular sounds and rhythms of South America, the group draws from cumbia, chicha, guaracha, champeta and other styles mostly from Ecuador, Colombia and Peru.

For her first solo project, the French-Chilean singer Alsy has teamed up with producers Rose, Peter Dallas and Jimmy Whoo. Co- produced with Jimmy Whoo, this EP reflects the meeting of the two artists' worlds, between the nocturnal atmosphere of Motel Music and the sunny ambiance of the singer's South American influences.

With her project Candela, Alsy has imagined her own musical universe, intimate and deep, rich in the variety of her influences. The lyrics are passionate, the rhythms smooth and warm, and the project is a subtle mix of modernity and nostalgia, between steamy reggaeton, smooth synth pop and hypnotic electro.

The singer's smooth and bewitching voice is the hallmark of this debut EP, which takes us on a dreamy journey from Paris to Santiago, against a backdrop of rhythmic and atmospheric music.

Soyuz (союз) stole our hearts back in 2022 when we released their album Force Of The Wind to critical acclaim. Here we proudly present the predecessor to that LP, the band’s sophomore long player from 2019 that was previously only available digitally. It captures a pivotal evolving period in the band's career, the recordings giving a snapshot of what would become their sound on Force Of The Wind, yet with echoes of avant-psychedelic-pop footprints from yester years.

Produced at a time when band leader Alex Chumak had moved from Minsk to Kyiv, torn between the need to try something new and the homesickness it brought about. Travelling back to Minsk almost weekly, Alex joined fellow band members Mikita Arlou and Stanislav Murashko to lay down II at Studio 42. The album captures these transient feelings, contextualised through the broad scope of influences the band were nourished by. From MPB to Ethio-Jazz and the Italian library soundtracks of Piero Piccioni and Piero Umiliani, the album shines with touches of joy from across the globe.

The opening track 'Verocai' is a tribute to the Brazilian maestro and 'Mirouze', whilst being named after a French favourite of the band, Jean-Pierre Mirouze, pays clear homage to Milton Nascimento and Lô Borges. A ghostly sample and invisible connection to music made miles away in a different era that has influenced and become part of the band’s lives. This is further reinforced in the album's enchanting closer, the aptly titled 'Nascimento', another nod to the great Brazilian musician and singer.

The beginnings of the cinematic, soul-laden jazz Soyuz are now known for, are on display across the likes of ‘Lyric’ and 'Motive I'. The latter an orchestrated jazz instrumental with sensuous string sections, all of which were recorded on the warmth of a Studer reel-to-reel and waltzing Rhodes keys.

Soyuz’s wide-ranging palate is further demonstrated in tracks like ‘Business Partners’ with its Krauty, kosmische, new wave production featuring Inturist, and the oh-too-short Anatolian-influenced interlude 'Corrida'. Elsewhere, 'Tezeta' and ‘es-2 Jazz’ hint at the psychedelic haze of soul-funk, with the former featuring verses from Serbian rapper Petar Martic.

For this new physical and digital release, the whole album was mixed from scratch by Ryan Power before Joker worked his magic on the remaster. More excellence is to come from Soyuz, but in the meantime, we are thrilled to present this essential recording from the band’s foundational years, mixed to a level that does it the justice it deserves.

Meaning ‘Hi’ in Uruguayan slang, Opa are a South American jazz-funk phenomenon. Fusing Uruguay’s native Candombe rhythms with North American jazz and pop music, Opa’s space-age synthesizers, boisterous grooves and compositional magic expressed a distinctive Afro-Uruguayan voice within the global jazz vernacular: a voice which remains as vital and unique today as when it was recorded, almost half a century ago.

Having migrated to New York from Montevideo in the early seventies, Opa were heard playing in a nightclub by renowned producer and label owner Larry Rosen. At Holly Place Studios between July and August 1975, Rosen oversaw Opa’s first recordings using a four track Teac 3340. The album would become home to some of Opa’s hardest hitting funk jams, with moments of songwriting wonderment and soulful pop and rock progressions combining with the jazz-funk fusion Opa would become known for.

Mysteriously (for reasons unknown to the band), Opa’s debut was shelved and remained so until the mid-1990s. But the Back Home recordings were used as demos, gaining Opa a record deal with Milestone Records and the subsequent release of two cult-favourite albums: Goldenwings (1976) and Magic Time (1977).

Opa would also collaborate with North American titans including bassist Ron Carter, producer Creed Taylor and Brazilian icons Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Hermeto Pascoal and Milton Nascimento. In more recent years Opa’s music has found new audiences after being sampled by Captain Murphy (aka Flying Lotus) and Madlib.

For fans of Azymuth, Weather Report, Cortex and The Headhunters.

Hard-hitting Conguero, Johnny Blas has performed and recorded in the world of Latin music and jazz for over 45 years. He returns with his most recent and sixth musical production as a soloist, Salsa Para Ti. With a career spanning over 30 years, Blas has performed with distinguished artists such as Francisco Aguabella, Mindi Abair, Chuck Loe, Boney James, Evelyn Champagne King, Max Bennett, Bobby Allende, Terry Gibbs, Dave Koz and Poncho Sanchez among many others. On the bongo, congas or timbales, Blas belongs to the cream of the crop. But in this instance, he takes it further, by adding saxophone and flute solos to his percussion. After his recordings A Night In LA (Dos Coronas, 1994), Skin and Bones (Cubop 1997), Mambo 2000 (Cubop 1998), King Conga (Cubop 1999) and Indestructible Spirit (Cubop 2007), Blas presents Salsa Para Ti, 11 pieces consisting of his own material plus some Jazz and Salsa classics such as Boranda, Round Midnight and Baila Que Baila.

For the second 12” of the series Far Out has enlisted two of the most on-fire producers in Germany: Max Graef and Glenn Astro, along with one of the UK’s brightest ascendant producers.

The Minyo Crusaders' 2017 debut album “Echoes of Japan” LP will be back in stock on vinyl! Purists beware, as these ten Japanese musicians have decided to give a cumbia, reggae, salsa, ethiopian groove and afro-funk twist to min'yo, an ancestral Japanese folk song genre of which they were all fans before they met. Their debut album, the eminently exotic (even zany) Echoes Of Japan, features ten tracks from the min'yo repertoire sung in the grand tradition of the style, to the sound of Afro-Latino brass and percussion. A delightful example of successful fusion, however unlikely it may seem.

For the third release in our Mr Bongo Cuban Classics series, we reissue the iconic 1974 debut album by the mighty Grupo Irakere. Led by Chucho Valdés, son of Cuban pianist and bandleader Bebo Valdés, the band would go on to become of the most influential and successful groups emanating from Cuba in this period. Their debut ‘Teatro Amadeo Roldan Recital’ is an in-demand and incredible Afro-Cuban, jazz-funk masterpiece originally landing on Cuba’s state-owned imprint, Areito.

One of the jewels of the album is the beast of an opener, 'Bacalao Con Pan’. A heavy dancefloor Latin-funk burner, with ripping Wah-Wah guitar, a blistering mix of Latin percussive elements and horns firing on all cylinders. It’s a song which builds and breaks with an energy and power that still lights up the dance to this very day.

The album is a varied bag of tricks, traversing moods, styles and genres whilst melding traditional rhythms with more contemporary mindsets. Take the delectable downtempo ballad ‘Danza Nañiga’ or ‘Valle Picadura’ that starts on a similar tip, before erupting into a horn heavy heater. Move through to find ‘Taka Taka Ta’ where Afro-Cuban jazz, call and response vocals and brain-busting organs marry in steamy unison.

Elsewhere, continuing this melting pot of musical influences, the prog/psychedelic rock leaning 'Quindiambo', expertly combines traditional Latin music with psych rock in a similar way to Santana. 'Misaluba' is another highlight, a cover version of a song by the British-Italian based group Cyan, written by Mario & Giosy Capuano, making it their own with this tripped-out, percussion-rich makeover.

As debuts go, Grupo Irakere’s ‘Teatro Amadeo Roldan Recital' is about as good as it gets and gives a snapshot of Cuba in the mid ‘70s, with a band that were destined for big things.

Two years after the release of his first self-titled album, DJ producer Massimo Napoli aka Galathea presents the new 'Sacred Love', in which he once again avails himself of the collaboration of his friend producer and bass player Salvo Dub, as well as a combo of respected musicians: singer Kadi Koulibaly - originally from Burkina Faso - already featured on the first album, Giulia La Rosa, author of the lyrics and performer of the title track, pianist Mario Pappalardo, percussionist Sergio Spitaleri and drummer Luciano Cantone. 'Sacred Love' is definitely a more mature, intense and profound journey than the previous album of the same name, which enhances the magical dreamlike and spiritual atmospheres of a certain African culture. The album guides the listener along a path of multi-ethnic contaminations: "Divinité", "Ouaga" and "Koloko", well interpreted by Kadi, touch on the sacredness and mysticism of the African continent and blend well with the Spiritual Jazz sounds that have evolved in the West. "Divinité", through the spoken word of French poet Diego Hernandez, tackles the themes of faith, life and the relationship with one's 'self', with references to French chanson productions, in which Kadi's spiritual song, at times 'Saharan', intersects and expands into cosmic space. The title track, the first single from the album, also released on 7" (45rpm) in two versions, is an Afro-American gospel with a typically afrobeat rhythm, vaguely reminiscent of Nina Simone's 'See-Line Woman'. North Africa is represented by "Equator", while we climb further north into the middle of the Mediterranean Sea with "Medican Blues", to land in Stromboli with the Deep Jazz of "Ginostra", whose title recalls the village of the marvellous island in the Aeolian archipelago. Then we have the Cuban track "Caminito", a sort of Cha-Cha with a romantic piano melody (à la Chucho Valdez) well performed by maestro Mario Pappalardo; and then again "Eos", strongly Balearic with a Brazilian mood; "Impression", a dreamy journey of impact; "Sirens", already present on the first album and here reworked in a new Spiritual-Ambient version produced by Agosta. "Sacred Love" is thus an original and musically borderless album, which expands a certain African sacred culture and naturally blends Afrobeat, Jazz and Blues atmospheres with the Balearic sounds of Mediterranean culture. Enjoy listening!

This is one of the most obscure records ever released in Venezuela in the 60s and the only recording of The Pets. This 1967 album shows perfectly what the influences of the Venezuelan nueva ola (new wave) scene were at the time, including versions of The Doors, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Paul Revere & The Riders_ as well as the outstanding original "El Entierro De Un Hombre Rico Que Murio De Hambre", one of the finest garage tunes to emerge from Latinamerica. It followed the global triumph of the Beatles that made the wave of beat groups gets bigger and bigger and lots of new bands emerged, some of which would last while others would definitively go into oblivion, and a small number of them would leave at least one recording that today is considered a highly valuable collector's item. This is the case of The Pets. Originally, they were not called The Pets, but The Playboys, and basically the group was formed to liven up the parties and gatherings at Casa Italia, a very important institution in Los Teques, near Caracas, where they formed. At one of these parties, they were heard by a representative of the Discomoda label who insisted on recommending the group to the company, completing the signing of their contract almost immediately. First time reissue, audios remastered from the original tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl.

Agua Larga offre une immersion dans la culture Afro-Équatorienne de la province d'Esmeraldas. Les auteurs ont captés comment la musique s’inscrit dans la vie quotidienne des habitant.e.s et dialogue avec les autres éléments sonores qui l’entourent. La matière musicale est ainsi accompagnée de récits, de poèmes et de scènes du quotidien captés sur le vif, loin des studios aseptisés, dans l’espace public, sur la berge des fleuves ou en bord de mer.

La thématique de l’eau (“agua” en Espagnol), sous toutes ses formes, est le fil conducteur. La mer a amené les esclaves vers ce nouveau continent mais c’est elle qui fournit aujourd’hui en poissons les pêcheurs. Les fleuves et rivières, empruntés par les bateaux et pirogues, permettent de connecter les villages de cette forêt tropicale. L’eau est aussi devenue une denrée rare en ville, où son accès est encore difficile pour une partie de la population. Les scènes prises sur le vif marqueront cette omniprésence de l’eau, comme lieu de vie et ressource quotidienne nécessaire."

Tango Argentino is not only a sensual and intoxicating dance and musical style, but also a cultural symbol that reflects the history, passion and identity of Argentina. Originating in the suburbs of Buenos Aires in the late 19th century, tango combines African rhythms, European social dances, and the influences of immigrants to Argentina to create a unique dance form. Initially considered scandalous, tango gained acceptance and popularity over time. Traditional tango music, characterized by soulful melodies and melancholy lyrics, is dominated by the bandoneón, an accordion-like instrument, and accompanied by violin, piano and guitar. Beyond the borders of Argentina, tango has become a worldwide phenomenon, with international tango festivals and dance clubs in cities worldwide. Unesco declared tango culture an Intangible Cultural Heritage of the World in 2009. Tango Argentino has produced timeless masterpieces and great musical artists that are considered important cultural symbols of Argentina and are compiled in this collection. Tango Argentino remains the universal language of passion, longing and joy that enchants dancers and listeners alike.