ENCANTARIAS Launching and release

Aim: Launch of the album among the Capoeira community; broadcast of the concert with the full band and exceptional guests from Rio de Janeiro.

Dear donors and collaborators,

I am thrilled to announce the details of the upcoming release event for the album "Encantarias." This album marks a major personal milestone for me, especially after overcoming recent challenges such as a dislocated shoulder and undergoing complex surgery.

Your support in this and previous projects has meant a lot to me. Thanks to you, I have overcome challenges and reignited my passion for Capoeira and my determination to continue with this project. I am excited to celebrate this achievement and share it with all who supported me throughout this process.

We will perform in the "Estudio Casa Com Musica" concert space, the same place where we made the recording. Whether you attend our event in Rio or tune into the live stream, I would love to share this special moment with you.

This is my first live concert debut for an album release. The event offers an opportunity to showcase the beauty of capoeira and our rich musical heritage to a wider audience. I'm also inviting the best capoeira artists in Rio de Janeiro to join us for an evening of creativity, art, and community.

We are planning to host an open mic session, providing an opportunity for capoeiristas to showcase their own or others' songs. We're excited to see what will happen with this new development in Capoeira.

Please save the date: July 21, 2024

Unfortunately, we didn't reach the £3,000.00 target of the original crowdfunding which would cover the costs for the launch (almost though! We reached £2,000.00).

Following my initial fundraising plans, I have chosen to launch an additional crowdfunding campaign to cover the expenses of launching, broadcasting, and creating a music video for this showcase. We're gonna upload the video clip to all the major streaming platforms for everyone to check out.

The costs are listed below:

Venue hire, sound, and other costs related - R$1,600.00
Transport for the musicians - R$150.00
Food - R$300.00
Video caption, editing, and subtitles in English - R$1,500.00
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R$3,550.00 = £515.00

"What's the latest in our album Encantarias?"

One of the album's tracks mixes the instruments of two different cultures, Bumba-Meu-Boi - which has a unique musical structure in Brazil - and Capoeira.

The idea came about during my musical research in São Luís do Maranhão. On a hot night in the capital of Maranhão, I was invited to watch the Bumba-Meu-Boi procession.

At the height of the show - there he was, the great "Ox Puppet" facing me, spinning round and round, running towards me. It was quite a fright! There I was filming, composing, and thinking at the same time:

"What would it be like to incorporate these instruments into capoeira music?"

And here we are doing just that!

The magic of the album doesn't stop there. Another instrument from Maranhão appears in the arrangement of the song "Jogar Contigo". But wait just a little longer to hear the full story and music!

Immerse yourself in the powerful sound of the jaguar in the video "Tambor-Onça," which means "Jaguar-Drum" in Brazil.

Watch the video by clicking Here.

Check out the teaser for another song, "Gira de Angola", which explores the connection between the rhythms of Capoeira Angola and Candomblé.

Click Here to listen to the teaser.

We've prepared a B-side following the old vinyl format. There are three instrumental tracks, including two pandeiro and berimbau grooves, plus a traditional rhythm from Bahia played by the full capoeira orchestra. Watch out! This surprise has been made public to further encourage your participation in our upcoming party and concert. Pedro Lima, along with the full band, will be performing all three songs on July 21st. This is an event you won't want to miss!

Check out a sample of one of the grooves on YouTube.

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What is this project about?

"We need to reforest our minds"
Samela Sateré Mawé
Brazil Climate Summit 2022, New York

It gives me great pleasure to present the ENCANTARIAS project to all of you. This will be my 9th Capoeira album. Production will take place from 7 September 2023 to January/February 2024 and you are invited to participate as partners in this artistic and creative journey.

This album completes a trilogy that began with the albums Tekó Porã (2020), followed by História de Plantas (2021), both celebrating the ancestral knowledge of indigenous peoples and their ecosystems. The name of the work refers to the rich variety of myths and traditions of the caboclo (mestizo) and Indigenous peoples of Brazil.

ENCANTARIAS will be a musical piece about culture in permanent symbiosis with Brazilian biological diversity, bringing this universe even closer to capoeiristas and the general public.

In short, we will celebrate the "enchanted beings" of Brazil, the Encantados. In the Brazilian popular imagination, they are for example the spirit of the jaguar and the big snake, the warrior Indians and the enchanted shamans, the caboclas Mayra, Jacira, Jupira, Iracema, Jurema, and the pink dolphin, and many other beings of Brazilian mythology. It is believed that they exist in the waters and the woods, that they never really had a concrete existence, and that they have always lived in enchantments.

These spiritual beings remind humans to respect the forests and hinterlands, rivers and mangroves, canyons and plateaus, trees, lagoons, streams, and all animals. They protect the ecosystems on which our survival depends.

When these magical entities are enchanted to take part in the Amerindian and Afro-Brazilian festivals and ceremonies, such as the Fulni-ô Toré, the Bumba-Meu-Boi, the Catimbó, the Pajelança, the Maracatu, the Umbanda, the Jurema or the Pankararu peoples and their magical entities of the drylands, they are taking care of the planet. This is how forest peoples and their enchanted beings work to protect the planet.

Pankararu people ceremony, Pernambuco State of Brazil

By shifting the Amazon rainforest to the centre of our artistic reflections, we are bringing the concept of global centrality to the biomes of the Amazon. As if the heart of the planet started beating from its largest green area - a political and artistic strategy to nourish the world with ideas and knowledge coming from the forests - drawing attention to what is happening in the most important part of this body, inverting global values and perspectives. The forest is the centre! 

Come with us, and let's be enchanted together!

I ask you now to access my albums on the Bandcamp platform to know more about my work through the 8 albums and singles already released. Click on the titles below: História de Plantas, Tekó Porã, Guarnicê, Memorial, Contragolpe, Contragolpe Instrumental, Sabotagem e Guarnicê Remix.

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Why is this project important?

Encantarias is inspired by the knowledge of indigenous peoples. It gains relevance by sharing a non-utilitarian vision of nature and a less individualistic life in society. All of this is even more important given the commitment of millions of Brazilians to the current national reconstruction project promised by the current government. The protection of our ecosystems is a big part of it and it is urgent after the catastrophic mandate of the last president. The global community has a unique opportunity to protect the forests with the prospect of a Brazilian ecological government, committed to the indigenous causes of the Amazon in particular.

he Brazilian Congress is currently voting on the Marco Temporal (Temporal Framework). This is an anti-indigenous, anti-democratic and unconstitutional thesis that abolishes a fundamental right of indigenous peoples: the right to land. Created by ruralists to exploit traditional territories, the Marco Temporal makes the demarcation of Indigenous lands unfeasible and puts the lives that live on them at risk. This is something we need to talk about now in Brazil and worldwide: the protection of indigenous peoples and their lands is also about our survival.

Recently, indigenous leader Sônia Guajajara, in her inauguration speech as Minister of Indigenous Peoples, focused on the valorisation of ancestry. She even said that "the future of the planet is ancestral". On the same day she announced the re-creation of the National Council for Indigenous Policy, which had been abolished by the previous government.

At another point, she said: "I dare say, without any exaggeration, that many indigenous peoples are living a real humanitarian crisis in our country". Her account shed light on the dangers threatening the Amazon, as well as the Cerrado (savannah), the Mata Atlantica Forest (litoral forest) and the Pantanal (wetlands). A few days later, the current government declared a state of public health emergency for the Yanomami people. Months later, the illegal mining operations that poisoned the waters, the land, the fish and the indigenous people have mostly been removed from Yanomami lands. In April 2023, during COP27 in Egypt, President Lula committed the world to putting Brazil on the path to zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.

By confirming the resumption of Brazil's official commitments to the planet's ecology, I renew my determination to ally myself with the struggle of forest peoples to protect our biomes, through the ENCANTARIAS album project.

Nothing written above is new. The aggressors are old acquaintances: large logging companies, hydroelectric dams, illegal mining, agribusiness, drug and animal traffickers. These activities use chainsaws, tractors, lorries, agrochemicals, mercury and often employ violent, heavily armed militias. All of this has systematically destroyed the ecology of these regions and all who inhabit them, bringing disease, destruction and death. But this destructive system extends beyond Brazil, through the international markets that finance and supply this same destruction.

The beginning of my engagement with that cause began in 2019 when I attended the Flourishing Diversity: Learning from Indigenous Wisdom Traditions conference at UCL in London. There, I listened to the lectures of 30 indigenous representatives who came from different parts of the world that stimulated me to address ecological issues.

From that same year I recorded Tekó Porã and Guarnicê released in 2020, at the beginning of the Pandemic. In 2021 it was the turn of History of Plantas.

Album Tekó Porã & Guarnicê Recording, London 2019

Album ContraGolpe recording, London 2018

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Fieldwork

The field research to investigate the musicality and subjectivities of the theme will be carried out over two weeks in the state of Maranhão, especially in its capital, São Luís, and in Codó. Plus a week in the state of Pernambuco with the Pankararu indigenous groups. The city of Codó, 300 kilometres from São Luís, is considered the capital of "Encantarias" in Brazil.

The rich diversity of this region's culture is unique in Brazil and has a close relationship with Indigenous and African-Brazilian spiritual entities.

 Sergio Costa* (Tambor de Crioula do Maranhão)
Our host for the field research in Maranhão

* Sergio Costa is a direct disciple of well-known Mestre Felipe and the drummer of the group he created: Mestre Felipe's group.

P.S. You will be very welcome to take part in some LIVE activities that I will be organising with cultural agents and producers in Maranhão during my field research. I would be delighted to introduce you to the tradition of the "Tambor de Crioula".

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NOTE: this is the beautiful book of photos and texts created at the Roda do Cais do Valongo - rare, impactful and produced from inside of a Roda de Capoeira. There are only 20 copies for the Pantanal reward and 2 for the Cerrado reward, so hurry!

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We like to DREAM BIG! So if we fundraise more than the budget for the album, we would love to produce a music video with one of their songs. The video will be co-created with students from the "Escola de Capoeira Angola Criação" in São Luís do Maranhão. This is the same community project that will receive a percentage of the profits from the sale of the album (15% of each unit that is sold). We've turned dreams into reality in the past. Take a look at the music videos we produced for the Guarnicê and Tekó Porã albums.

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Testemonials from previous album Tekó Porã