Lula Côrtes & Zé Ramalho
Paêbirú

Lula Côrtes & Zé Ramalho - Paêbirú (1975)

This is a story of mysteries, of fables, of strange coincidences, of incoherent facts handed down from the past, of appearances and disappearances, and the fact that in the end, there is a happy ending is only a consequence of the veil that fate decided to cast over the intricate episode.

It all began in the late 1500s, when a captain of the guard of the State of Paraíba, in Brazil, like a good son of a good woman, set off in pursuit of a group of indigenous people, guilty of having "illegally" occupied territories that they had already cultivated for centuries, along the river that gave its name to the state at the center of the Atlantic spur.

The captain, following the bed of an highland tributary, came upon a large finely carved monolith with strange and mysterious characters, making it one of Brazil's most important archaeological discoveries. The stone was named "Pedra do Ingá" and featured very unique engravings, dating back around 5,000-6,000 years and still not clear, so much so that, as always, even extraterrestrials have been invoked. Another intriguing hypothesis would insert the hypothetical language spoken in Atlantis because the glyphs are very similar to those Proto-Hittite found in central Anatolia and the Cretan disc of Phaistos, another mysterious object not yet fully understood.

Four centuries after the discovery, two Brazilian composers Lula Côrtes & Zé Ramalho, upon seeing the engravings, had a "psychedelic" impression and wanted to make them the subject of the songs they were composing, which ended up in the double album Paêbirú.

The record was composed and recorded at the beginning of 1974 and then printed in a single session in the amount of 1300 copies. Another legendary and unclear point sees the city of Recife hit by a terrible flood (more likely) or perhaps by a fire at the building housing the distribution company (less likely). What is real is that the printed copies were almost entirely destroyed. The intact copies went on sale from 1975, becoming an immediate and very expensive "archaeological artifact", thus creating a parallelism with the story that generated it. The original was saved, perhaps miraculously, but for various reasons, it was never reprinted until the recent release by London-based Mr. Bongo Records.

The musical concept revolves around the four elements (earth, air, water, and fire) and the psychedelic experience, generated by South American hallucinogenic mushrooms, was, according to the authors themselves, a fundamental element in the sound realization.

True, the psychedelic themes around the world, at the time, had already been extensively and definitively dealt with, but the concept of mixing elements and methodically transposing nature into music was the winning act.

Musically it starts from the chase narrated at the beginning: "Trilha de sume" is the jungle of sounds, improvised, tribal, lysergic, of drones whispered by insects and animals. It's a blast of ancestrality that sees the fetus curling upon itself and only stretching thanks to the arrival of a bucolic flute, improbably melodic, especially compared to the free spirit of the beginning of the piece. Then come the pizzicati, the pan flutes, to mix folk and the whispers of the earth, the breaths between the branches of "Harpas dos ares". We are projected into the primordial forest with "Nao existe molhado igual ao pranto" and we can already see ourselves bent among the leaves, never trampled, in search of food or in a shamanic act supported by a mighty saxophone, which some local substances have caused to coil like an invasive plant around the trunk of the poor victim. Then again tribal moments, endless Hendrixian fuzz, Zappa-style fragments, moments of tradition related to samba, extreme jazz, Indian ragas, Andean folk, Caucasian and Hellenic music and their particular use of the minor third. Still, music of the land of origin, even with the psychedelic and pop folk references of fellow countrymen Os Mutantes, but treated with the crazy gaze of the Electric Prunes and the harmonic subversions of Tom Zé. And, just to make sure nothing is missing, even clear Kraut elements.

The album is long and often difficult: alternates moments of pure shamanic spirit and inner revolution with others of pastoral relaxation, with melodious and airy openings of great effect. Overall, the percussions of every kind dominate, skillfully combined with the voices of the forest and the indigenous people, generating a true spiritual and dreamlike set, an inner connection with the earth and the elements of nature, in a unique and visionary experience, perhaps never repeated.

Unique album, for its story and its music.

Sioulette.