b - s i d e s

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 52:51] all rights reserved

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The artist Otacílio Melgaço has two official curators in the virtual world. A curator (from Latin: ´curare´, meaning ´to take care´) is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or, as the present case: sound archive) is a content specialist charged with an institution's collections and, highlighting the context in force here, involved with the interpretation of personal (heritage) material. Both, Mr. Paz and Mr. Campbell, are, therefore, reviewers of the Melgacian works. To learn more about their missions, tasks, assignments and responsibilities by means of valuable informations regarding the compositional process, the performative rhizomes and other special features, just click the following link: otaciliomelgaco.wix.com/preamblebypsp
(O.M.Team; P r e l u d e)

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"A compendium of unpublished sonic Pieces of Otacílio Melgaço and coming from other Works - but that were left out.

They´re all relics and so should be absorbed in

> authenticity/iconoclasm;

> impeccability/detaility;

> versatility/legitimacy;

> expressiveness/impressiveness;

> profundity/ascensionality.

An invaluable mosaic!

As a summary, brings a bit of all Melgacian cosmopolitanism.
Forays into

> contemporary music;

> Brazilian sound spectra (I call your attention peculiarly to the pace of ´Zabumba´ in the first track and the minimalistic/mantric sound of ´Berimbau´ in third);

> idiosyncratic jazz;

> electronic filigree;

> inhuman atmospheres;

> experimental art rock;

> cosmogonic hybridisms;

> some Eastern accents;

> unexpected noisy interventions

and so on.

´I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener´, notes of Arvo Pärt.

´B-Sides´ is white light and their tracks all colors.

Each of you, listeners, is

upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Light_dispersion_conceptual_waves.gif

and I will trust in your prismatic spirits as also your
b(est)-sides..." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"B-Sides are generally rarities. More than not have been included in previous records, it seems that are preserved and must be truly understood as a special case; crown jewels closely guarded and that one day are revealed as a whole. So we are face to face with an artist alter ego and our hearing deserves heightened acuity. To our privilege.

The microcosm here is impeccable! The creations of Otacílio Melgaço artistically are a wonderful kind of Babel. But he follows the direction of an interesting phrase of João Guimarães Rosa: ´The solution to Babel is the Translation.' O.M., although anti patronizing or always challenging us constructively, offers translations. Through his ´B-Sides´ can we see that its resonant construction (מִגְדַּל בָּבֶל‎, Melgacian Migddal Bāḇēl) - progeny of clever engineering & superb architecture - has reached, unlike the tower of biblical mythology, the most unimaginable heights." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - Maracatu is a performance found in Pernambuco state in northeastern Brazil. There are two main types of maracatu, maracatu de nação (nation-style maracatu) and maracatu rural (rural-style maracatu).

Maracatu de nação (also known as maracatu de

BAQUE VIRADO:

"maracatu of the turned-around beat") is an Afro-Brazilian performance genre. The term, often shortened simply to nação ("nation", pl. nações), refers not only to the performance, but to the performing groups themselves. Maracatu de nação’s origins lie in the investiture ceremonies of the Reis do Congo (Kings of Congo), who were slaves that occupied leadership roles within the slave community. When slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, the institution of the Kings of Congo ceased to exist. Nonetheless, nações continued to choose symbolic leaders and evoke coronation ceremonies for those leaders. Although a maracatu performance is secular, traditional nações are grouped around Candomblé or Jurema (Afro-Brazilian religions) terreiros (bases) and the principles of Candomblé infuse their activities;

II - Keflavík International Airport (Icelandic:

KEFLAVÍKURFLUGVÖLLUR)

(IATA: KEF, ICAO: BIKF), also known as Reykjavík-Keflavík Airport, is the largest airport in Iceland and the country's main hub for international transportation;

III - A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its highest or lowest excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. The solstices, together with the equinoxes, are connected with the seasons. In many cultures the solstices mark either the beginning or the midpoint of winter and summer. The word solstice is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination; that is, the seasonal movement of the Sun's path (as seen from Earth) comes to a stop before reversing direction. At latitudes in the temperate zone, the summer solstice marks the day when the sun appears highest in the sky. However, in the tropics, the sun appears directly overhead (called the subsolar point) some days (or even months) before the solstice and again after the solstice, which means the subsolar point occurs twice each year. The term solstice can also be used in a broader sense, as the date (day) when this occurs. The day of the solstice is either the longest day of the year (in summer) or the shortest day of the year (in winter) for any place outside of the tropics.

For an observer on the North Pole, the sun reaches the highest position in the sky once a year in June. The day this occurs is called the June solstice day. Similarly, for an observer on the South Pole, the sun reaches the highest position on December solstice day. When it is the summer solstice at one Pole, it is the winter solstice on the other. The sun's westerly motion never ceases as the Earth is continually in rotation. However, the sun's motion in declination comes to a stop at the moment of solstice. In that sense, solstice means "sun-standing". This modern scientific word descends from a Latin scientific word in use in the late Roman republic of the 1st century BC:

SOLSTITIUM.

Pliny uses it a number of times in his Natural History with a similar meaning that it has today. It contains two Latin-language morphemes, sol, "sun", and -stitium, "stoppage". The Romans used "standing" to refer to a component of the relative velocity of the Sun as it is observed in the sky. Relative velocity is the motion of an object from the point of view of an observer in a frame of reference. From a fixed position on the ground, the sun appears to orbit around the Earth;

IV - ´CAMINHO DE FERRO´

is the same as ´railroad´;

V - ´CAVALO DE AÇO´

is ´Steel Horse´. Perhaps a pun on ´Iron Horse´. 'Aço' (= ´Steel´), surname suffix ´MelgAÇO´;

VI - ´COMBOIOS´

(´Comboio´ plural) is the same as ´train´.

[Analyzing the music title (track 03), I suspect that there´s a similarity with (citation and homage to) ´Grande Sertão: Veredas´, universal literary work of Guimarães Rosa];

VII - ´TCLMLGÇ´

are consonants of ´Otacílio Melgaço´;

VIII - JEAN CHARLES

de Menezes (1978 – 2005) was a Brazilian man shot dead by the London Metropolitan police at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground after he was misidentified as one of the fugitives involved in the previous day's failed bombing attempts. These events took place two weeks after the London bombings of 7 July 2005, in which 52 people were killed.

Later, police and media accounts contradicted each other, specifically regarding Menezes's manner and clothing as he entered the station, and whether there had been any police warnings before they fired. The death sparked an intense public debate over a shoot-to-kill practice known as Operation Kratos. The codename was dropped in 2007, but the policy continues.

Police put under surveillance the communal entrance to a block of flats in Tulse Hill, south London, in which Menezes was living, and saw Menezes leave the building. Plain clothes officers, armed with pistols, followed him as he took a bus to Brixton tube station, before boarding another to Stockwell because the tube station at Brixton was closed. Specialist firearms officers were called to Stockwell. Just after Menezes entered a train, several officers wrestled him to the ground and fired seven bullets into his head at close range. The train was still at the platform with its doors open, having just been evacuated by officers.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) launched two investigations. Stockwell 1, the findings of which were initially kept secret, concluded that none of the officers would face disciplinary charges. Stockwell 2 strongly criticized the police command structure and communications to the public, bringing pressure on the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair to resign. In July 2006, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute any of the officers, although a corporate criminal prosecution of the Metropolitan Police was brought under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. This alleged that the police service had failed in its duty of care to Menezes. The service was found guilty and fined. On 12 December 2008 an inquest returned an open verdict.

´SO19´ is the armed unit of Scotland Yard. The addition of (S) -

´SO(S)19´,

an Melgacian irony that underlines the tragic and unacceptable character of police action - refers to ´SOS´, the international Morse code distress signal (· · · – – – · · ·). In popular usage, ´SOS´ became associated with such phrases as
´Save Our Ship´ or
´Save Our Souls´ or
´Send Out Succour´. >> (!!!) <<

Musically, ´Jean Charles´ also mentions ´Jean Pierre´ (by Miles Davis);

IX - An equinox occurs twice a year, around 20 March and 22 September. The word itself has several related definitions. The oldest meaning is the day when daytime and night are of approximately equal duration. The word equinox comes from this definition, derived from the Latin

AEQUUS (equal) and
NOX (night).

The equinox is not exactly the same as the day when period of daytime and night are of equal length for two reasons. Firstly, sunrise, which begins daytime, occurs when the top of the Sun's disk rises above the eastern horizon. At that instant, the disk's center is still below the horizon. Secondly, Earth's atmosphere refracts sunlight. As a result, an observer sees daylight before the first glimpse of the Sun's disk above the horizon. To avoid this ambiguity, the word equilux is sometimes used to mean a day on which the periods of daylight and night are equal. Times of sunset and sunrise vary with an observer's location (longitude and latitude), so the dates when day and night are of exactly equal length likewise depend on location;

X - The

ABYSSAL ZONE

is the abyssopelagic layer or pelagic zone that contains the very deep benthic communities near the bottom of oceans. "Abyss" derives from the Greek word ἄβυσσος, meaning bottomless. At depths of 4,000 to 6,000 metres (13,123 to 19,685 feet), this zone remains in perpetual darkness and never receives daylight. It is the deeper part of the midnight zone which starts in the bathypelagic waters above.

Its permanent inhabitants (for example, the black swallower, deep-sea anglerfish and the giant squid) are able to withstand the immense pressures of the ocean depths, up to 76 megapascals (11,000 psi). Many abyssal creatures have underslung jaws to sift through the sand to catch food.[2] These regions are also characterised by continuous cold and lack of nutrients. The abyssal zone has temperatures around 2 °C to 3 °C (35 °F to 37 °F) through the large majority of its mass.

The area below the abyssal zone is the sparsely inhabited Hadal zone. The zone above is the bathyal zone. These three zones belong to the deep-sea realm. Above on the continental platform there are respectively the euphotic and dysphotic zones. The abyssal zone lies partially in the dysphotic and partially in the aphotic zones.

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POST SCRIPTUM

"The degree of details in the works of O.M. is elevated. Imagetically, I could mention how the lovable dog is biting the 'l' letter of the surname ´Melgaço´ but my focus now is another.

Over there, the predominant color is pink and in its Brazilian language, ´Pink´ is the same as ´Rosa´, the last name of the writer João Guimarães - ubiquitous reference to Otacílio but my focus now is really another.

Okay.

Notice that, on the art cover, there are prominent the 'ES' of the word 'b-sidES'. Unlike predecessors letters, specifically both also white but in a darker background. This filigree caught my attention.

I did mention to the ´prismatic spirits´ - in a sentence based on Pärt -, remember? In Portuguese, the initials of the word ´spirit´ are ´es´ (´espírito´). However is a mere curiosity.

It´s ´de facto´ relevant to know

>> (and this is one of the true keys to disc, I think) <<

that ´es´ is the German term for the ´id´, one of the psychic apparatus defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche.

The id (Latin for ´it´) is the unorganized part of the personality structure that contains a human's basic, instinctual drives. Id is the only component of personality that is present from birth. It is the source of our bodily needs, wants, desires, and impulses, particularly our sexual and aggressive drives. The id contains the libido, which is the primary source of instinctual force that is unresponsive to the demands of reality. The id acts according to the ´pleasure principle´ — the psychic force that motivates the tendency to seek immediate gratification of any impulse — defined as, seeking to avoid pain or unpleasure (not 'displeasure') aroused by increases in instinctual tension. According to Freud the id is unconscious by definition:

´It is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, what little we know of it we have learned from our study of the Dreamwork and of the construction of neurotic symptoms, and most of that is of a negative character and can be described only as a contrast to the ego. We approach the id with analogies: we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations. ... It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle.´

In the id,

´contrary impulses exist side by side, without cancelling each other out. ... There is nothing in the id that could be compared with negation ... nothing in the id which corresponds to the idea of time.´

Developmentally, the id precedes the ego; i.e., the psychic apparatus begins, at birth, as an undifferentiated id, part of which then develops into a structured ego. Thus, the id:

´contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, is laid down in the constitution—above all, therefore, the instincts, which originate from the somatic organization, and which find a first psychical expression here (in the id) in forms unknown to us.´

The mind of a newborn child is regarded as completely ´id-ridden´, in the sense that it is a mass of instinctive drives and impulses, and needs immediate satisfaction, a view which equates a newborn child with an id-ridden individual—often humorously—with this analogy: an alimentary tract with no sense of responsibility at either end, paraphrasing a quip made by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan during his 1965 campaign for Governor of California in which he compared government to a baby.

The id ´knows no judgements of value: no good and evil, no morality. ... Instinctual cathexes seeking discharge—that, in our view, is all there is in the id.´ It is regarded as ´the great reservoir of libido´, the instinctive drive to create—the life instincts that are crucial to pleasurable survival. Alongside the life instincts came the death instincts—the death drive which Freud articulated relatively late in his career in ´the hypothesis of a death instinct, the task of which is to lead organic life back into the inanimate state.´ For Freud, ´the death instinct would thus seem to express itself—though probably only in part—as an instinct of destruction directed against the external world and other organisms´ through aggression. Freud considered that ´the id, the whole person ... originally includes all the instinctual impulses ... the destructive instinct as well´ as eros or the life instincts.

Eyes open to this analogy, I'm sure that the expression 'b-sidES' will never be the same from now on. Leastways through The way that O.M. established the context of everything (the ´id´ like our metaphorical ´b-side´). If I am correct about the parallel between backlit 'es' and Freud's notes, ladies and gentlemen, points (and applauses) to Melgaço." (P.S.P.)

...for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
quotes have Wikipedia as a source...

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Between two parentheses...
(Atonalism, Twelve-Tone, Serialism, Musique Concrète... Acousmatic. Eletroacoustic. Magnetic Tape. Expressionism, New Objectivity, Hyperrealism, Abstractionism, Neoclassicism, Neobarbarism, Futurism, Mythic Method. Electronic...Computer Music, Spectral, Polystylism, Neoromanticism, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism...are addressed by Melgaço. Paradoxically New Simplicity and New Complexity also.
Art Rock, Free Jazz, Ethnic Dialects, Street Sounds are occasional syntax elements.
All the possibilities mentioned above and others that were not mentioned are the usual accoutrements of the composer/instrumentalist to establish his ´babelic´ glossary. We can prove this in a short passage of a single composition up along the entirety of a conceptual phonograph album. All distributed over a career and idiosyncratic records. Have we a universe before us and I propose to see it through a telescope, not a microscope.
I propose not handle very specialized topics here. Otherwise would be, with the exception of musicians and scholars, all hostages of a hermetic jargon. Because more important is to present Otacílio Melgaço to the general public and not to a segment of specialists. Faction of experts not need presentations, depart for the enjoyment beforehand. For this reason there is no niche here for intellectual onanism and encrypted musical terminology. The reason for these parentheses is to establish such elucidation. The non-adoption of technicalities leads to more panoramic, amplifier reviews. Are You always welcome. Those who do not dominate contemporary music and are introduced to the world of ubiquitous O.M. [autodidact and independent artist who, being more specific, does not belong to schools or doctrines; artist who makes Music and that´s enough; music devoid of labels or stylistic, chronological, historical paradigms or trends] and Those who belong to the métier and turn to enjoy propositions they know and also delving into advanced Melgacian sound cosmogonies...
I conclude poetically. ´Certeza/Certainty´ by Octavio Paz. ´Si es real la luz blanca De esta lámpara, real La mano que escribe, ¿son reales
Los ojos que miran lo escrito? De una palabra a la otra Lo que digo se desvanece. Yo sé que estoy vivo Entre dos paréntesis.´ If it is real the white light from this lamp, real the writing hand, are they real, the eyes looking at what I write? From one word to the other what I say vanishes. I know that I am alive between two parentheses.
We´re all more and more a-l-i-v-e now.)
- P.S.P.