If you follow the output of Music From Memory, you will sooner or later come across the two compilations »Outro Tempo« and »Outro Tempo II«. Both samplers brought together various finds from Brazilian music history; all in all from the period between 1978 and 1996. Besides Maria Rita, the pieces of cellist Priscilla Ermel were especially great »digs«. Priscilla Ermel, who grew up in São Paolo, learned to play the guitar and cello as a child and soon devoted herself to the wealth of instruments of Brazil’s indigenous population. For years, percussion instruments and drums, but also string and plucked instruments, most of which are completely unknown, gathered together. She used several expeditions into the (now daily shrinking) rainforest for a deep engagement with music in archaic societies and groups, in villages that have been cut off from any »modern« civilization and have lived unchanged for decades. Priscilla Ermel dared to take this step above all because, as a Brazilian, she did not feel at all represented by Europeanised music history. After a confrontation with Tai Chi and its hand-braked tempo later, she wrote numerous songs, 15 of which are now gathered together on »Origens Da Luz«. They are folkloristic songs full of sublime clarity, often sounding out of this world, sometimes alien. They cross fog banks in the rainforest as well as short trips on the Amazon – until very close to the next waterfall. Anyone who would argue that these are tasteless images has a point; unfortunately, it is difficult to grasp these songs. Jew’s harps and cuicas, songs from the brutally loud shoals of the Amazon region, polished and solid songs, at a pleasant temperature. This record is a spiritual journey; what more can one say?
Origens Da Luz
