Wo 12 jun 2024: Levaguiã Terê by Vitor Araújo, Metropole Strings in Amsterdam

Virtuoso Brazilian pianist and composer stacks rhythms into mesmerizing polyrhythmics at the intersection of symphonic music, traditional Brazilian music, jazz and pop.

Five years ago Vitor Araújo, once a child prodigy and the regular musical collaborator of associate artist Christiane Jatahy, was working diligently on his magnum opus Levaguiã Terê. This second album came out of the research into polyrhythmics heard during religious rituals of Candomblé and Umbanda, primordial roots of musicality in the region where the composer was born, the Brazilian northeast. However Araújo places these in a more symphonic context. The album’s music will now be played live by Araújo and his band, with two Candomblé percussionists and string players of the Metropole Orchestra. Swirling wistfully at times, measuredly minimal or boisterously tribal at others, but almost always driven by the incessant pulse of percussion, Araújo’s immersive rhythms cover a broad musical spectrum – just like Araújo himself, for that matter. The super talent was heralded as a revelation of Brazilian composed music and takes inspiration from sources ranging from Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, jazz and samba heroes like Chico Buarque and Tom Jobim to composer/pianist Ryuichi Sakamoto and Radiohead.