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Spiritual Graffiti {Otac​í​lio Melga​ç​o} [duration 05​:​12​:​00]

by Otacílio Melgaço

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about

S p i r i t u a l G r a f f i t i

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 05:12:00] 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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"What can be said about this post-metaphysical work? Perhaps only Rainer Maria Rilke would be able to glimpse when he writes that things aren’t so tangible and sayable as people would usually have us believe; most experiences are unsayable, they happen in a space that no word has ever entered, and more unsayable than all other things are works of art, those mysterious existences, whose life endures beside our own small, transitory life.

'Spiritual Graffiti' is our own small, transitory life being invaginated by those 'mysterious sonorous existences'. Are we being attracted to a black hole. And precisely because it's an audible 'black hole', 'Spiritual Graffiti' becomes for us an enlightenment." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

"'Not Christian or Jew or
Muslim, not Hindu,
Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen.
Not any religion

Or cultural system. I am
Not from the east
Or the west, not
Out of the ocean or up

From the ground, not
Natural or ethereal, not
Composed of elements at all.
I do not exist,

Am not an entity in this
World or the next,
Did not descend from
Adam and Eve or any

Origin story. My place is
The placeless, a trace
Of the traceless.
Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved,
Have seen the two
Worlds as one and
That one
Call to and know,

First, last, outer, inner,
Only that breath breathing

Human being.' (Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī)

Certainly the human being that culminates the mystical verses of the Persian poet, is well beyond human. In fact, is one in which everyone should become one day. But until today, is well beyond human. Or maybe the majority of humanity is so far from deserving to be called like this. Mea Culpa.

Invoking change, developability and hope, I have sometimes expressed about how determined Melgacian compositions seem to have not been created by a human being and not for other human beings.

I will repeat (adding even the 'unfathomable' and yes, I refer to everything that may be beyond the human sphere - understand from the way that suits you): some Melgacian compositions seem to have not been created by a human being and not for other human beings. Here we're facing a perfect - if I may say - 'specimen'.

Masterpieces are in irremediable extinction.
I have the impression that the contemporary world can no longer conceive or accept or support them.
The same applies to the concept of 'Genius'. The current times have made the Genius - someone quite 'suspect'. If alive, Michelangelo, Mozart, Picasso, ... , certainly they would be in some kind of Index Prohibitorum.
The global village has every reason to view them with suspicion.
Every reason to burn them in a virtual public bonfire. Because the Genius is an insult to the narrow-minded ochlocracy instituted. The Genius is an affront to (1- I talk with feeling of condolences but 2- immune to any aesthetic or ideological or religious ... patrols and 3- re-invoking change, developability and hope) narrow-minded ochlocracy instituted (whether in the digital universe, or out of it.) Recently Umberto Eco, not being hypocritical or politically correct, uttered about it and rightly so. Anyway...
Before a Masterpiece, we're caught up, abducted, transubstantiated.
Therefore, I will say without any presumption/pedantry/demerit (to who haven't earned it), but with the courage to separate the wheat from the chaff (usually, nowadays, so much chaff, so little wheat) and honor those who still have the vocation to lift their heads, look at the heights (in case, hear), make every creation the highest and so extend their hands with assertiveness/empathy for each of us: We're before 'Spiritual Graffiti' - a Masterpiece, made by a Genius.

Before a Masterpiece, caught by an Art that reveals a watershed, it's not conceivable space or time to verbiage or chatter or hocus-pocus.
I fully corroborate the opinion of Mr. Campbell - any attempt at description, dissection, labeling, 'domination by defining' ... all this will be in vain. Ladies and gentlemen, it would not make sense if we started to practice a dimmed onanism around the stylistic, instruments, forms of composition, scherzi and glissandi. In a work of such caliber, all this becomes ephemeral fragrance. Transient incense. Experience the hearing of five hours and twelve minutes of the Melgacian Piece without any interruption - it's a rite of passage. The 'calibration' of our senses, perceptions, sensations, impressions, emotions, intuitions, concatenations, cognitions, ... , interconnectedness ... will never be the same. And, moreover, I will refrain myself from exploring what might be called properly spiritual projection, because that issue it relates to the idiosyncrasies of each listener. 'Spiritual Graffiti' is one of those indefinable artistic epiphanies that only deserve one word:
l-i-s-t-e-n!

Veritatis simplex oratio.

Or, as an excursus on Nietzsche, both Movements of this monumental ad lib transcendentalist Piece are in truth a supplement to the reality of nature, placed alongside thereof for its conquest!" (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

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I - René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926) was a Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist, "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets", writing in both verse and highly lyrical prose. Several critics have described Rilke's work as inherently "mystical". His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry, and several volumes of correspondence in which he invokes haunting images that focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety. These deeply existential themes tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist writers;

II - Ad libitum is Latin for 'at one's pleasure' (at liberty).

> As a direction in sheet music, ad libitum indicates that the performer or conductor has one of a variety of types of discretion with respect to a given passage: to play the passage in free time rather than in strict or "metronomic" tempo (a practice known as rubato when not expressly indicated by the composer); to improvise a melodic line fitting the general structure prescribed by the passage's written notes or chords. (...)

> Ad libitum is also used in psychology and biology to refer to the "free-feeding" weight of an animal, as opposed, for example, to the weight after a restricted diet or pair feeding. In nutritional studies, this phrase denotes providing an animal free access to feed or water thereby allowing the animal to self-regulate intake according to its biological needs. In biological field studies it can also mean that information or data were obtained spontaneously without a specific method. Medical prescriptions may use the abbreviation ad lib. to indicate "freely" or that as much as one desires should be used.

> Ad-lib is used to describe individual moments during live theatre when an actor speaks through their character using words not found in the play's text. In film, the term ad-lib usually refers to the interpolation of unscripted material in an otherwise scripted performance;

III - Graffiti are writing or drawings that have been scribbled, scratched, or painted illicitly on a wall or other surface, often in a public place. Graffiti range from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and they have existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.

In modern times, paint (particularly spray paint) and marker pens have become the most commonly used graffiti materials.
May also express underlying social and political messages and a whole genre of artistic expression is based upon spray paint graffiti styles;

IV - ["The cover image of Melgaço album (concept, photo and design brought to light by himself) is, as a matter of fact, originally from Paris. It's not a proper building but a simulacrum, is an artistic creation forging a whole facade. This information already reveals a fascinating symbolism. Other: behind the windows, there are no people or objects or letters that would result in the title or... What we can see is ... light. A supernatural light, I would say. In the light. Delight.

Although musically such record have no point in common with an English group of hard rock - it sounds surreal merely contemplate this analogy -, the title and the cover make pellucid references to the sixth studio album by Led Zeppelin, 'Physical Graffiti'.

This parallel is - hitherto - an enigma not elucidated by the Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist." (P.S.P.)]

"Physical Graffiti". The album's sleeve design features a photograph of a New York City tenement block, with interchanging window illustrations. The album designer, Peter Corriston, was looking for a building that was symmetrical with interesting details, that was not obstructed by other objects and would fit the square album cover. He said:

"We walked around the city for a few weeks looking for the right building. I had come up [with] a concept for the band based on the tenement, people living there and moving in and out. The original album featured the building with the windows cut out on the cover and various sleeves that could be placed under the cover, filling the windows with the album title, track information or liner notes."

The two five-story buildings photographed for the album cover are located at 96 and 98 St. Mark's Place in New York City. The original photograph underwent a number of tweaks to arrive at the final image. The fifth floor of the building had to be cropped out to fit the square album cover format. The buildings to the left and right were also changed to match the style of the double front. Tiles were added on the roof section along with more faces. Part of the top right railing balcony was left out for a whole window frame to be visible. The front cover is a daytime shot, while the back cover was taken at night.

Mike Doud is listed as the cover artist on the inner sleeve, and either the concept or design or both were his. In 1976 the album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of best album package.

Post Scriptum

Does Melgaço, in his iconoclasm (from the most direct / explicit to the most allegorical / metaphorical), reveal to us, if we look carefully, a building on fire?

...for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
Wikipedia was the main 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.

credits

released September 9, 2015

Hear more here:
soundcloud.com/otaciliomelgaco

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O t a c í l i o
M e l g a ç o {conception | composition | arrangement | synopsis | instrumentation | orchestration | engineering & sound design | art design | production | direction}

Special Guests: Nausícaaa Ensemble

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Otacílio Melgaço Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Composer, Arranger, Conductor, Multi-
Instrumentalist
from
Minas Gerais,
Brazil.
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Official (English) Site
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"Music is like a bewitched Mistress." (Paul Klee)
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