Infinito Particular, Universo ao Meu Redor
Label: Blue Note
Length: LP
Media: CD
Format: Album
WorkNameSort: Infinito Particular, Universo ao Meu Redor
It’s been five years since Brazilian singer Marisa Monte released her last studio album, and it’s apparent that she hasn’t been lazy in that time. Besides the release of her tremendously successful collaboration with Carlinhos Brown (Tribalistas), Monte gathered up enough material to fill two decidedly different albums. Universo ao Meu Redor finds her mining the samba tradition that she grew up in, but rather than embarking on a purely archival mission, Monte ‘ along with producer Mario Caldato and other collaborators like Brown and David Byrne ‘ created a lush and contemporary-sounding work. Universo is filled with strange flourishes and topped, of course, by Monte’s incredibly rich voice. The archiving, oddly enough, is left to Infinito, on which she rescues a raft of her early songwriting experiments and transplants them firmly into the present. Again assisted by an able cast (Seu Jorge, Philip Glass and Eumir Deodato, among others), it’s nonetheless Monte’s voice and individual approach to today’s Brazilian pop music that makes both of these discs outstanding.
This article appears in Sep 6-12, 2006.