O M F U G !

O t h e r M u s i c
F o r
U p l i f t i n g G o r m a n d i z e r s !

- A T r i b u t e T o D a v i d B o w i e -

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 01:02:18] 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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"Through the previous release we received from Mr. Melgaço, this ebullient discographic album was scheduled to be a tribute to David Bowie long before his death. Unfortunately, a homage turned into a requiem.

Not the first time a contemporary musician flirts with the work of the recently deceased British artist. It would be enough to cite ´Heroes´ & ´Low´ Symphonies by Philip Glass. The difference is that for Mr. Melgaço there´s no comfort zones. He approaches the universe of his honoree deeply and takes risks and goes beyond. One thing is certain: O.M. can do what he want: will always be a stimulating, iconoclastic, ingenious, uncanny, daedal and challenging result.

OMFUG! may be interpreted as a reverberant Bowiean phonobiography according to Melgaço. One way or another, all or several facets of the man behind Aladdin Sane are present. (Plural vertebrae of) rock, pop, electronic, avant jazz, black music, classical, ballad, acoustic, cabaret-ish etc. By the way, I suggest you exercise a potentially Sherlockian mind because we´re facing a puzzling sonic conception. Among so many, four fascinating examples that, with one exception, in order to maintain the surprise - I´ll not situate: 1- Even D.B. actor was approached. In a specific composition there´s the noise of a movie projector - being turned on and then off; 2- At a given moment, I heard a morse code. Would be interesting if it were decoded - taking into account that (and I can assure you) the message is also closely connected to the context; 3- Highlighting the Encomium, incidentally - at the bottom - emerges, in a certain pervasive transition, the "Ave Maria" (Bach-Gounod); 4- In the final show which Bowie performed in his Ziggy Stardust persona, the introduction was Beethoven's Ninth Symphony arranged and performed by Wendy Carlos. What is the mention Otacílio does in the first compasses of this recording? Added to this, another aspect
that´s key: the architectural audio mixing is great because each Aktion has its own ´p-e-r-s-o-n-a-lity´: a peculiar perception and proportion of spatiality between instruments, unexpected colors, inalienable textures. After all, how many dimensions exist in these Melgacian Pieces? I recognize myself ecstatic to answer: Countless! Plus: The tracks chaining. Listen all OMFUG! and feel like the creator of this masterpiece accurately & entrancingly consecrated the sequencing. An effervescent nowaday (and simultaneously timeless) Saga! Or, as in the words of one who dressed himself like Halloween Jack: ´The truth is, of course, that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time´.

We also found direct references (purposeful certainly) such as beats that remind us songs like ´Five Years´ or ´Modern Love´ likewise there are bold extrapolations as the use of a brass that David practiced and he much admired (the saxophone), however here: a punctual ejaculation that embraces the free jazz. For granted - just listen to the entire Melgacian discography to have proof that musically O.M. is as metamorphic as the articulator of The Thin White Duke (in fact, being quite earnest and empirical, Otacílio is explicitly more sonorously polyfaceted and ...), therefore
we´re witnesses of a unique equilibrium betwixt what is an interpenetrated elegy and what is indelibly idiosyncratic. Tributes are often disappointing because at least two issues. First, by being too much obvious or subservient or respectful (either - on the contrary - poorly, ramshackle and suspiciously ´anarchic´). Second, the perpetrators tend to be - in concept or ability or creativity - light years behind the magnitude of what they are focusing on. Definitely not what happens here. Since all the points in common between David Bowie and Otacílio Melgaço underscore the value of expansions that the Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist employed on the recording.

Listen to the post stratospheric minimalism of the ´Aktion VI´, reflecting the Brian Eno´s influence over David - what was a catapult for his absorption of Kraftwerk and then exile & rebirth in a trilogical Berlin;
Listen to the aggressive pace of ´Aktion V´: may refer to the adventure that was the Tin Machine. Not even the testosterone of punk or hard rock escaped to earn predicates that levitate;
Listen to the traces of perhaps Maria Schneider in ´Aktion VII´; O.M. raises the ultra modern jazz (fragment of the last North of D.B.) above science fiction levels!;
Listen to the extreme subtlety (is it an audible wormhole or Einstein-Rosen Bridge?) of acoustic strings in ´Aktion III´, under the spell of a little china girl;
Listen to the metaphysical, ´extraterrestrial´ varnish that Otacílio implements in ´Aktion XI´, paradoxically and surprisingly depicting the extent of black music in Bowie's soul phase.
And so on ...

No doubt O.M. proposes a multidimensional Odyssey to each of us. Bowie here - inevitable to make a parallel with his death - is already orbiting around the Earth. More than that (if we observe with detail the ´aura´ that covers the compositions): probably, and I become perpetual the metaphor, he has shipped to other sidereal niches. Yes, we´re all invited to embody Major Tom. Considering that, from Melgaço's auspices, we´ll configure ´our´ Major, one untransferable/particular Tom ( t O. M.). From one character to another, note, I repeat: a spatial atmosphere prevails over the whole disc. So you and I are invaginated into the universe of the aforementioned Stardust too. Loving the beloveable alien, the rise and fall and now reascension! Verify: a lot of musics have ridges and valleys well delineated. It´s a stylistic feature and further: the Melgacian polysemy in vogue again. Rise and fall and now the re-reascension!
[A heartfelt recommendation: hear the eleven pearls at a volume considerably above that you have the habit. I can assure you, this is part of a conjunctural lifting sense. Uplifting sense.]
In my opinion, this ´cosmic scenario´ is deployed, is unfolding from station to station (intergalactic - still a figure of speech -). From track to track, it becomes highest in the last; the feeling is that we´re really taking off, reaching the stellar apex and there´s no return. ´Taking it all the right way, never no turning back.´ Apropos, the opening (Aktion I) and such coda (XI) are recorded live. Are the audience voices - in the culminating seconds of stupendous OMFUG! - suggesting - as if they were spiders to weave a supersonic, hypersonic, ultrasonic web - ´Is there life on Mars?´ If it was possible, would be a pertinent question to be asked now to own Bowie, do you agree? Are not the personages but David Robert Jones himself (as he would like, being a Übermensch) that reaches its most outlying elevation, who knows?
In the end, seem to be what Melgaço brightly insinuates to me and you.

No, there´s another innuendo (or task) that I need to mention.
Melgaço also brilliantly insinuates to me and you that ...
We can and must be heroes, just for ever and ever.
What d'you say?

P o s t S c r i p t u m

Today, January 14, 2016

If I shifted the spotlight to the topic ´ascension´, I can make an analogy with rebirth, resurrection and even transubstantiation. It´s no coincidence that O.M. is doing it all the time in his OMFUG! I just call your attention, Net Citizen, to a some spectra of this vibrant kaleidoscope. Ascension, resurrection, rebirth ... and so we´re faced with Lazarus.

Lazarus of Bethany, also known as Saint Lazarus or Lazarus of the Four Days, is the subject of a prominent miracle attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which Jesus restores him to life four days after his death. The Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions offer varying accounts of the later events of his life. In the context of the seven signs in the Gospel of John, the Raising of Lazarus is the climactic narrative: exemplifying the power of Jesus ´over the last and most irresistible enemy of humanity—death. For this reason it is given a prominent place in the gospel.´ The name ´Lazarus´ is frequently used in science and popular culture in reference to apparent restoration to life; for example, the scientific term ´Lazarus taxon´ denotes organisms that reappear in the fossil record after a period of apparent extinction. There are also numerous literary uses of the term.

Today, for me, the name of David Bowie will be Lazarus.
And exactly four days after his death,
Otacílio Melgaço - artistically, musically - restores him to life.
A life no longer on earth but in the air, the sky, firmament, welkin, azure, sphere, empyrean, heaven.
And from his mouth we hear the following words:

´Look up here, I’m in heaven
I’ve got scars that can’t be seen
I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen
Everybody knows me now
I’ve got nothing left to lose
I’m so high it makes my brain whirl
This way or no way
You know, I’ll be free
Oh I’ll be free
Oh I’ll be free
Look up here, I’m in heaven
Now ain’t that just like me
I’m in heaven, I´m free
Now, I´m free
All we are.´

We´re (in) OMFUG!" (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

"Many claim that Bowie was a chameleon. Others do not agree because he also created trends - beyond mimicry. The protean man once said: I´m a collector. David absorbed hungrily all that was interesting to him, as a fluid kind of cannibalism. An insatiable gormandizer! But at the same time served as nutritious succulent ubiquitous flesh for musicians, actors, fashion designers, ... , as well as centripetal source for artistic, aesthetic, sexual, behavioral ... proclivities.

OMFUG!, eleven rare Bowiean collectors Pieces. In the creation of Melgaço, of course. Under his signature, his distinctive timbre. In other words, Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers!

Still ´overlooking´ the name of the admirable, marvelous work;
I read in the Urban Dictionary:

´OMFUG: The SUB heading under CBGB's sign in NYC.

As an acronym it has become symbolic of American Punk.

That's more of what we do, It means

O-THER
M-USIC
F-OR
U-PLIFTING
G-ORMANDIZERS.

And what is a gormandizer? It's a voracious eater of, in this case, MUSIC.´

CBGB was a New York City music club opened in 1973 by Hilly Kristal in Manhattan's East Village. The club was previously a biker bar and before that was a dive bar. The letters CBGB were for country, bluegrass, and blues, Kristal's original vision, yet CBGB soon became a famed venue of punk rock and new wave bands like the Ramones, Television, Patti Smith Group, Blondie, and Talking Heads. [David Bowie never played CBGBs but sometimes was a punctual goer.]

It´s worth remembering that ´OM´ are the initial letters of the name and surname of the artist ´Otacílio Melgaço´. ´OMFUG!´ may be a clever paronomasia. ´FUG´ means ´a warm, stuffy, or smoky atmosphere in a room´ (or in a flying tin can? Far above the world?). Also signifies ´dust´. What makes me think of Star dust. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. ´FUG´, on the other hand, suggests ´FUGUE´, ´a contrapuntal composition in which a short melody or phrase (the subject) is introduced by one part and successively taken up by others and developed by interweaving the parts´.

Justifying inexorably an exclamation point,
OMFUG!: eleven rare Melgacian collectors Pieces.
Under his timbre, his distinctive signature.
Of course, above all - under Bowiean inspiration too.
In other words (and through a sincere, innovative, frabjous, stunning, eclectic, versatile, upward, surpassing, life-giving, heart touching, breathtaking tribute), ladies and gentlemen:

O-TACÍLIO

M-ELGAÇO

F-OR

U-PLIFTING

G-ORMANDIZERS!" (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

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I - In accordance with Melgaço, his choice of term ´Aktion´ refers to Joseph Beuys. Otacílio transposes the concept for its opuses and performances;

II - Bowie's songs and stagecraft brought a new dimension to popular music in the early 1970s, strongly influencing both its immediate forms and its subsequent development. A pioneer of glam rock, Bowie, according to music historians Schinder and Schwartz, has joint responsibility with Marc Bolan for creating the genre. At the same time, he inspired the innovators of the punk rock music movement. While punk musicians trashed the conventions of pop stardom, Bowie moved on again—into a more abstract style of music making that in turn became a transforming influence. Biographer David Buckley writes, "At a time when punk rock was noisily reclaiming the three-minute pop song in a show of public defiance, Bowie almost completely abandoned traditional rock instrumentation." Bowie's record company sought to convey his unique status in popular music with the slogan, "There is old wave, there is new wave, and there is Bowie." Musicologist James Perone credits him with having "brought sophistication to rock music", and critical reviews frequently acknowledge the intellectual depth of his work and influence.

Buckley writes that, in an early 1970s pop world that was "Bloated, self-important, leather-clad, self-satisfied, ... Bowie challenged the very core belief of the rock music of its day." As described by John Peel, "The one distinguishing feature about early-70s progressive rock was that it didn't progress. Before Bowie came along, people didn't want too much change." Buckley says that Bowie "subverted the whole notion of what it was to be a rock star", with the result that

"After Bowie there has been no other pop icon of his stature, because the pop world that produces these rock gods doesn't exist any more. ... The fierce partisanship of the cult of Bowie was also unique—its influence lasted longer and has been more creative than perhaps almost any other force within pop fandom."

Buckley concludes that "Bowie is both star and icon. The vast body of work he has produced ... has created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture. ... His influence has been unique in popular culture—he has permeated and altered more lives than any comparable figure."

Through continual reinvention, his influence broadened and extended. Biographer Thomas Forget adds, "Because he has succeeded in so many different styles of music, it is almost impossible to find a popular artist today that has not been influenced by David Bowie." In 2000, Bowie was named by NME as the "most influential artist of all time".

Numerous figures from the music industry whose careers Bowie had influenced paid tribute to him following his death; panegyrics on Twitter also came from outside the entertainment industry and pop culture, such as those from the Vatican, namely Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, who quoted "Space Oddity", and the German Foreign Office, which thanked Bowie for his part in the Fall of the Berlin Wall and referenced "Heroes".

...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.