Day 0879 - São Paulo Confessions

Suba “São Paulo Confessions” (1999)

Before I even get into the music, this artist was really interesting to read about.   Suba (Mitar Subotić) was a Serbian musician who studied accordion, and played keyboards in a few bands.  He studied orchestration and composition at a music academy where he became interested in and studied electronic music.

Suba released electronic recordings under the moniker Rex Ilusivii.  His recording “The Dreambird, in the Mooncage” combining traditional Serbian lullabies and electronic arrangements earned him an award from The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and got a scholarship to relocate to São Paulo, Brazil.  Suba fell in love with his new home immersed himself in the music scene.

Alongside scoring work for radio and TV, he rose to prominence as a producer, mixing traditional styles of Brazilian music like Bossa Nova with electronic production.  An approach he used on the brilliant “Tanto Tempo” album he worked on with singer Bebel Gilberto.

Suba released “São Paulo Confessions” taking his meshing of the old styles with electronic elements.  The album met with favourable reviews, but Suba himself succumbed to smoke inhalation and died when his studio caught fire and he rushed in to try and save some recordings.

The above should actually give you kind of an idea of what the music is like.   Sounds, rhythms, instruments and vivre common to bossa nova and latin jazz that are used as the palette to create some nice chilled electronica.   Like on opener "Tantos Desejos" that has singer Cibelle delivering a nice bossa vocal over swirling soundscapes with busy percussion in the background.

It's possibly slightly long, but works nicely as a background loop to drift in and out of while doing other things

Day 0580 - Skylarking

XTC "Skylarking" (1986)

I'm always keen to check out more XTC.   I got into their album "Apples Venus vol.1" (I think through looking at the 1001 albums book back in 2009 or so) and I loved the lovely, lush, slightly 1960s-esque pop with it's orchestral touches here and there.

By the time this album came out, the band had largely become a studio-based project, following singer/songwriter Andy Partridge's breakdown and refusal to continue touring.  I do wonder if artists would be able to work as a solely studio-based unit nowadays with the majority of people not bothering to pay for recordings of music anymore.

This albums is typical of the other XTC albums I've heard before: excellent songcraft, some lush and interesting orchestrations, but with the occasional song that suits and utilises a more stripped-down approach.  The tracks range from baroque pop to faux jazz to eastern psychedelia.

Apparently lyrically it is supposed to be the journey from birth, school, marriage, kids through to death.  I picked up on bits and pieces of that, but for me it was largely just a musically enjoyable album.