Bandã is a Berlin-based all-female experimental ensemble of Brazilian musicians – clarinetist Juliana Perdigão, drummer Mariá Portugal (of Monster quartet), vocal artist Marcela Lucatelli (who recorded before with Portugal, and the only one who is based in Denmark), synth and electronics player Carla Boregas, and flutist Marina Cyrino (a member of the Brazilian experimental label Seminal Records). O Aniversário da Mariá (Maria – Portugal’s – Birthday) is the debut album of this quintet, recorded live during the ensemble’s first-ever performance at Sowieso in Berlin in May 2024, on the occasion of Portugal’s birthday, before a full house of an enthusiastic audience.
Bandã is a genre-defying, free-improv meets sound art ensemble that blends elements from free jazz, contemporary music, electronica, noise, punk, spoken word, Brazilian popular song, and Brazilian folk music. The five musicians say that they do not attempt to suggest a new genre, but are interested «in transitions, fragilities, in playing with stereotypes, and in sharing our aesthetics and ethics of listening».
O Aniversário da Mariá features eight short pieces titled after exotic plants (and Cyrino created before an audio-visual installation titled Plants Remember You if You Mess With Them Enough). and an extended 17-minute «Surpresinha» (A little surprise). The dynamics of Bandã are egalitarian, and it opts for an unpredictable but quite exotic and joyful, multidimensional exploration of the distinct topographies of sound.
The music reflects a process of listening, provocation, and care, a friendship in sound, a protest against expectations. The short pieces suggest pixie-like, chaotic yet imaginative textures. But «Surpresinha», with its open space for free improvisation, finally delivers Bandã’s potential as an irreverent and inventive, absurdist and playful sound-oriented unit.
Eyal Hareuveni
Carla Boregas (synthesizer, electronics), Marina Cyrino (amplified alto flute, piccolo, toys, objects), Marcela Lucatelli (vocals, piano), Juliana Perdigão (clarinets, electronics, vocals), Mariá Portugal (drums, vocals)
