N e f e l i b a t a

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 36:07] 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.wixsite.com/preamblebypsp
(O.M.Team; P r e l u d e)

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"Three deaths recently.
A jazz musician, the other coming from the progressive rock and a man of Drama.
A North American, an Englishman, a Brazilian.
Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman, Christopher Russell Edward Squire, Antônio Abujamra.
An unlikely, implausible, eccentric Triad.
Three Lilliputians Requiems.
Respectively,
1 - A resourceful vertiginous Free Jazz highlighted by an alto saxophone kaleidoscopic; 2 - A feeric misty Piece incensing Eastern spectra and, yes, having an ethereal architectural (double) bass as backbone; 3 - A complex Mosaic of rhythms and timbres revealing an authentically Melgacian Brazilianized Apotheosis!
´Nefelibata´, in essence, a venerable/enthralling/ingenious sonic Trinity! Or, in other words,
an instrumental Encomium under nebulae Triumvirate!" (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"There are dragons in a greenish sky on the album cover.

Dragons are often held to have major spiritual significance in various religions and cultures around the world. In many Asian cultures dragons were, and in some cultures still are, revered as representative of the primal forces of nature, religion and the universe. They are associated with wisdom—often said to be wiser than humans—and longevity. They are commonly said to possess some form of magic or other supernatural power, and are often associated with wells, rain, and rivers. In some cultures, they are also said to be capable of human speech. In some traditions dragons are said to have taught humans to talk.

There are pronounceable greeny clouds filled with dragons...

The Nefelibata adjective was used by Lima Barreto in the book ´Os Bruzundangas´ to designate those writers who despised the simple process, easy, textual construction, passing over the content to form. The word has Greek origin ´nephele´ (cloud) and ´batha´ (where you can walk). That´s one who ´walks in the clouds´. In literature, the writer who does not obey the literary rules. In the overall context, an idealistic person, who lives running away from reality.

None of the three honorees tried to escape from reality. Well, perhaps I can rephrase my sentence: all three artists who receive this fabulous tribute transformed their realities into something higher, something that went beyond common sense and dignified their and our lives. Otacílio Melgaço gives a new connotation to those ´walking on clouds´. Are those who, when alive / still earthlings, led to the heights hard works, dedication, gifts and ascensionaly sowed in fertile soil. They, the artists. We, those who reap, harvest their (resignified) ´cloudy´ legacy. And so a virtuous circle. Circle that´s probably the true meaning of Art (be given to light). Meaning O.M. inseminates so well in our perceptions and expectations.

In addition, it´s iconoclasm, refute rules, innovate, making the History also walk. To the highest evolving. Epitomes of the cultural heritages left by Coleman, Squire and Abujamra; epitome of ´Nefelibata´ - the daedal album (carrying as particularized as cosmopolitan challenging references) - and of all the Work nobly perpetrated by idealistic Mr. Melgaço, an audible prolific treasure that (the emeraldine metaphor is appropriate again) makes us go to the clouds to be enjoyed and we fructified - now - threefold in triply altitude." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - Afonso Henriques de Lima Barreto (1881 — 1922) was a Brazilian novelist and journalist. A major figure in Brazilian Pre-Modernism, he is famous for the novel Triste Fim de Policarpo Quaresma, a bitter satire of the first years of the República Velha in Brazil;

II - Antônio Abujamra (1932 – 2015) was a Brazilian theatre and television director and actor. Majored in journalism and philosophy at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul in 1957, he started a career as a theater critic while directed and acted his own plays for university theater. Professionally, he debuted as a theatre director in 1961, and as an actor in 1987, acting in both theatre and television. In 1989, Abujamra won the Best Actor Award at the Gramado Film Festival for his role in the film Festa. From 2000 onward, he was the presenter of TV Cultura's interview program Provocações.

...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.