“…this album is very much a product of the current Rio scene (where it was also partly recorded), and it ranks with the best experimental Brazilian rock albums that scene has produced in the last decade”
Rod Taylor, Brazil Beat
“Personally this has everything for me: finely balanced Brazilian songwriting with an edge of noise.”
Andy Cumming, Sounds & Colours
“Muito Sol reinforces Ricardo Dias Gomes’ position at the forefront of contemporary Brazilian music.”
Joseph Neff, The Vinyl District
“Dias toggles effortlessly between melodic gems and more sound-driven excursions…It’s one of my favorite albums of the year”
Peter Margasak, Nowhere Street
“Gomes is a minimalist at heart, adept at conjuring up intimate worlds from the sparest of gestures”
Andy Beta, The Shfl
“…a strange beautiful work of skewered pop, and unexpected weirdness”
Bob Baker Fish, Cyclic Defrost
“…enticingly original music”
John Parry, Backseat Mafia
“…unveils new, intricate elements with every new play”
Ljubinko Zivkovic, Echoes & Dust
Hive Mind Records are excited to bring you Muito Sol, the third solo album from Brazilian auteur Ricardo Dias Gomes.
The album is a deep, widescreen exploration in classic Brazilian song that brings all the subtlety and delicacy you'd expect from the pioneers of Musica Popular Brasileira coupled with a thoroughly 21st century sensibility and taste for sonic innovation.
A respected innovator on the Rio de Janeiro music scene since the mid 90s, Gomes is perhaps best known for his work on the trio of critically-acclaimed albums Caetano Veloso released in the late 00s: Cê (2006), Zii and Zie (2009) and Abraçaço (2012). Playing bass on these modern milestones in post-Tropicalia, and subsequently touring the world with Veloso, inspired Gomes to record his debut album -11 (2015), followed by the mini-album Aa, which featured Arto Lindsay (2018).
Muito Sol was recorded between New York, Lisbon & Rio de Janeiro and features a stellar cast of global players such as Jeremy Gustin (drums), Will Graefe (guitars), Ryan Dugre(guitars), Gil Oliveira (percussion), Alex Toth (trumpet), Tiago Queiroz (sax, flute), Jonas Sá (synths), Julian Desprez (guitars), Pedro Sá (guitars) & Shahzad Ismaily (synths); the album is often deceptive in its simplicity and repeated listens reveal layers of intricate instrumentation and arrangement, making listening something like an exciting exercise in excavation.
The album was recorded following Gomes' move from Rio to Lisbon and was inspired by the sense of unease that followed the move from a culture of vibrant spontaneity to a more genteel and 'civilised' country. Unlike Gomes' previous solo outings, Muito Sol includes a number of songs that explicitly celebrate Brazil's musical heritage and culture that are based on the Samba Ostinato.
The songs, led by Gomes' gentle and dreamy voice, are often reminiscent of classic innovators such as Caetano Veloso, João Bosco or Edu Lobo, though they take unexpected lines of flight into more experimental territory. There is also an element of drone underpinning the whole album which surfaces and takes full charge on Fllux and Transição, before the album is closed by what turns into the molten, distorted piece of raging hardcore, Coração Sulamericano, Ricardo's expression of pride in his Latin American heritage.
Muito Sol is a sun drenched dream from start to finish and album to be bathed in.
