A previously unreleased album by Hermeto Pascoal and his Grupo Vice Versa will mark the 200th release for London-based, Brazil-focused label Far Out Recordings.
Entitled Viajando Com O Som (The Lost ’76 Vice Versa Studio Sessions), the album was recorded over the course of just two days in 1976. Above, you can hear a 26-minute track from it in the form of closer ‘Casinha Pequenina’.
The album was recorded at Rogério Duprat’s Vice Versa Studios in São Paulo, and features Pascoal’s go-to ‘Paulista’ rhythm section of the day, consisting of Zé Eduardo Nazario (drums), Zeca Assumpção (bass) and Lelo Nazario (electric piano), as well as saxophonists Mauro Senise, Raul Mascarenhas and Nivaldo Ornerlas, guitarist Toninho Horta and vocalist Aleuda Chaves.
As the label explains, "Hermeto decided he would record with this particular group following a show at Teatro Bandeirantes, during which an almost spiritual musical connection amongst the group was realised. The performance lasted hours on end, without any breaks in playing, and Hermeto saw the potential for his compositions to reach a ‘higher level’ as the music organically moved from structured compositions to ‘freer’ improvisational works.
"In the studio, the sound engineer Renato Viola understood that things needed to happen quickly. Almost everything recorded on the first take ended up staying in the final mix. After the mixdown, Lelo Nazario would ask Renato to make him a copy of all the material, from machine to machine. As far as we know, the master tape eventually got lost over time, but Lelo kept his copy in his studio’s archives, where it stayed for over forty years."
With the tape having been recovered and restored, Far Out’s release of the album will arrive on November 3. You can pre-order it here.
