Contraduzindo

Brazilian singer, musician and composer Tuzé de Abreu’s career has been an intriguing one; during the seventies, he wrote songs for the likes of Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa and Tom Zé, and played on some of the most outré post-Tropicalia albums (Veloso’s Araçá Azul, Walter Smetak’s Smetak); he’s worked on soundtracks, joined Sexteto de Beco and Novos Baianos, and is currently flautist with the UFBA Symphony Orchestra. But Contraduzindo was only his second solo album in fifty years. It was worth the long wait; the songs here are compelling, odd things, often pared back to flinty guitar and de Abreu’s gorgeous voice; elsewhere, the songs are soaked in atypical wind arrangements, haunted by ghostly choirs, or on the brief “Onde”, swimming atop woozy, detuned strings. In the middle of it all, there’s the eight-minute composition, “Suíte Casazul,” a bravura arrangement that traverses rich terrain, a series of avant-garde snapshots.