Words -Justin Turford
In it’s seventh year of programming, the Brazilian Zona Mundi Festival (World Zone Festival) returned in late 2020 as an online extravaganza under the title - International Electronic Sound and Image Circuit (Circuito Eletrônico de Som e Imagem). With portals dedicated to creative discussion, hack spaces and video art (in its many forms) presented online the festival concluded with two weekends in October showcasing new trends in contemporary Brazilian music and their relationships with different artistic languages in the Expanded Zone (Zona Expandida).
Our friend from São Paulo, the mercurial producer, DJ and musician Chico Correa works under many guises and with a fluid musical palette that traverses the worlds of electronica and the rhythms of South America, the Caribbean and Africa. His own solo productions and remixes are a tough futuristic exploration of indigenous rhythms aimed squarely at the braver dancefloor but he also collaborates with a generous selection of artists in longer term projects that reveal other sides to his vision. From his fierce ragga-dancehall collaboration with vocalist Jessica Caitano, the more traditional AOR Brazilian rock sound of the Seu Pereira band and in this case the experimental instrumental trio of Berra Boi.
Formed as a way to perform his Berra Boi EP in 2016 which was created by heavily sampling the berimbau (the single stringed instrument that is the defining sound and rhythm of capoeira), Chico invited accordion and synth player Lucas Dan and the brilliantly named Cassicobra on percussion to turn the EP into a live proposition. Since then, they have evidently managed to find their own way of performing electronic improvised music that touches on cumbia, funana, dub, ragga and the uniquely Northeastern Brazilian genres baião and forró.
For the Zona Mundi Festival, retro Tropicalia-esque kaleidoscopic visuals and video trickery accompany the masked trio as they jam through a set of mid-tempo grooves, at times resembling an Amazonian Pink Floyd in the studio with Gotan Project and Khruangbin. Dubbed out acid squelches, Chico’s expressionistic guitar playing and the ever-changing but unceasingly great rhythms delivered by the accordion and percussion players propel a set of pure vibes and atmosphere. It all ends with a locked in dancefloor groove where Lucas’ keyboard skills come to the fore and you shout for another 45 minutes to get your groove on… muito bom!
Watch the full performance below and pick up the FREE recording HERE!
@berraboi