The sweet, sweet sounds of João Sobral

I discovered João Sobral’s debut album, ‘Vai Na Fé’ today and I’ve already listened to three times through – admittedly it’s only four songs, but it’s not often I hit repeat. Based in Brazil and influenced by his nation’s colourful, laid back culture, each song is effortlessly cool and as smooth as silk. Sobral’s tones are seductive with the effect of deepening relaxation much like the sensation of sinking into a warm bath… It’s seriously addictive stuff – the very encapsulation of tropical paradise.

I’m excited to see what Sobral gets up to next.

Here’s the silkiest of the bunch:

Catch the rest of it here: http://www.joaosobral.com.br/

Combating delirium with Tropicalia

If I haven’t mentioned it enough already, I’m currently drowning in deadlines. Dissertation is due on friday (lord help me). My days have become robotic cycles of waking, eating, working, sleeping with the occasional glass of wine throw in here and there. It helps with the stress. Calms the nerves. Anyway as you can probably tell times have become pretty desperate and I am starting to question my very sanity. Today, I spent a large part of my day in the library staring at the backs of people’s heads to see if they would turn around, which most of them did embarrassingly.  I find music is the best cure for times like these. Sadly, I can’t work and listen at the same time – my brain requires complete silence or it gets very muddled – so evenings are reserved for music. I head up stairs, light a few candles, smother myself in tinted moisturiser (don’t judge, we’re getting ominously closer to bare legs season) and sit listening to my records whilst it sinks in. It’s become like a form of meditation. My favourite record at the moment is ‘Tropicalia’ – a christmas present from my brother and my current life line. The record’s strap-line is ‘a Brazilian revolution in sound’ so as you can imagine it’s got some pretty fun tracks. I’m listening to it as I write this post and I can already feel it working it’s magic.

Here are a few of the record’s finest…

Gilberto Gil – Bat Mucumba

Jorge Ben – Take It easy, My Brother Charles

Os Mutantes – Quem Tem Medo de Brincar

 

 

Fernando de la Rocque: marijuana smoke paintings

Fernando de la Rocque when questioned about his artistic motivation answered, ‘I always like to create art with pleasure’… in other words with wine or weed…

His most provocative series ‘Blow Job – Work of Blowing’ consists of a collection of images of political and religious icons created out of marijuana smoke which he blows onto paint in pre-cut stencils. Inevitably it was a laid back process – each image apparently took approximately a week to finish with the smoke of about five joints a day, leaving the artist, no doubt, feeling a little hazy eyed and confused. Admittedly, the golden-hued images are fairly impressive, maybe not quite worth their price tag ( $2, 500 a piece ), but all in all weed well spent.

Source

 

Source

 

Source

Check out Fernando’s blogspot to see what else he’s up to: http://www.fernandodelarocque.blogspot.co.uk/

 

Conceptual Photography by Juliana Manara

Brazilian artist and photographer, Juliana Manara’s conceptual series ‘MiniB’ takes you into the surreal world of imagination; a world where you can paint a zebra, walk along a telephone wire and get your head stuck in a cloud, literally. Whilst all these scenarios would seem utterly ridiculous and let’s be honest, probably drug induced if they were paintings or illustrations, they seem more plausible in the black and white photographic medium and it takes a minute or two to register that anything peculiar is going on.

Yes that is a shark in a goldfish bowl and yes, that young man does look ready to dive in at any minute. Well, at least he’s taking a float ring with him. Safety first.

In the words of Manara herself: ‘Each work brings ideas of feelings, facts or attitudes. It introduces multiple meanings with the universality of landscapes, sometimes surreal environments and always a good relationship between human and other animals or the needy relation between humans and material things. MiniB invites us to dialogue about our existence and also can claim to some absurdities of the human conditions.’

What I really love about the series though, is the way it pokes fun at human existence. Enough of that existential angst. Just laugh.

 

 

source for all photographs

Prints of the series are available, for a pretty penny, via the Saatchi Gallery: http://www.saatchionline.com/julianamanara

And you can find more out about Juliana Manara on her website: http://www.julianamanara.com/