S t o c k h o l m s s y n d r o m e t

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 23:25] 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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"Stockholm syndrome (Stockholmssyndromet in Swedish) is a psychological condition that causes hostages to develop sympathetic sentiments towards their captors, often sharing their opinions and acquiring romantic feelings for them as a survival strategy during captivity. These feelings, resulting from a bond formed between captor and captives during intimate time spent together, are generally considered irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims. Generally speaking, Stockholm syndrome consists of ´strong emotional ties that develop between two persons where one person intermittently harasses, beats, threatens, abuses, or intimidates the other.´

In an instigating way, Otacílio Melgaço proposes to us a series of conjectures from the theme above and the perspective of the artist/audience, the musician/listeners. Vice versa too.

Let us think a little about which connotative innovations the prism of Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist surely will transmit to us.

I think it´s extremely valid to decode a Melgacian release like this precisely in the current period of the world. Stockholm syndrome. I could develop metaphorically the political dimension that offers us compelling parallels (thus I encompass one more dimension of the implicit message of Melgaço) but I have dealt with this in recent criticisms, let us stay with cultural invaginations.

[Such critical column is not done in favor of theses of Gargantuan character, but our notes should serve as a stimulus so that each reader (and especially listener) can carry on this thread of the skein. And speaking of stimulation, the reason for not dissecting the performance of this or that player because we do not intend to use, Netizens, your eyes directed to our words if what we most want is that your ears are turned to the Melgacian sounds. Henceforth, may you draw your own conclusions based on free will and not on any deterministic north indicated by me or Mr. Paz. As I often say, it´s not the ´north´ that concerns us, but the availability of compasses. What will be done of these instruments used for navigation and orientation, is in your hands, or better (and above all): lugholes.]

The topic elected to give title to his sound Piece (and album) is in itself worthy of our curiosity and the mode as O.M. instrumentalizes this would be enough to supply and satisfy us. But there´s always more.

>> A quick flash of light from some collaterals polysemies:

C a p t u r e B o n d i n g

Formally named in 1973 when four hostages were taken during a bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, Stockholm syndrome is also commonly known as ‘capture bonding’. The syndrome’s title was developed when the victims of the Stockholm bank robbery defended their captors after being released and would not agree to testify in court against them. Stockholm syndrome’s significance arises due to the fact that it is based in a paradox, as captives’ sentiments for their captors are the opposite of the fear and disdain an onlooker may expect to see as a result of trauma.

Contemporary art is not exactly to be defined. If you try to narrow it down on one side, it will probably escape on the other. But it´s undeniable that it´s a territoriality for re-significations, iconoclasms, transdisciplinarities, experiments, innovations ... We know that contemporary music, in one way or another, makes its listener a kind of ´initiate´. There are many ruptures of paradigms, reformulations, deconstructions, etc. It´s not always a process that happens easily, it rarely is. After all, it´s a rite of passage. A baptism of blood. Ultimately, a turning point. Such an artist (of such caliber) can be seen as one who ministers this watershed, as well as one who inserts his future listener into a series of (complex and demanding) ´trials´. That can (trans-aesthetically) come to links of various orders: sensorial, emotional, intellectual, animic. There´s an analogy with ´Stockholmssyndromet´. Not ipsis litteris, but it exists;

L i m a S y n d r o m e

A similar form of Stockholm syndrome called Lima syndrome has been proposed, in which abductors develop sympathy for their hostages. There are many reasons why Lima syndrome can develop in abductors. Sometimes when there are multiple abductors, one or more of them will start to disagree with what they are doing and influence one another. An abductor may also have second thoughts or experience empathy towards their victims. Lima syndrome was named after an abduction at the Japanese embassy in Lima, Peru, in 1996, when members of a militant movement took hostage hundreds of people attending a party at the official residence of Japan's ambassador. Within a few hours, the abductors had set free most of the hostages, including the most valuable ones, because of sympathy towards them.

A counterpart. Many contemporary musicians prefer to maintain a hermetic and unfathomable posture. They´re not as attentive to audience as they are with the own proles. Thus, the possibility of a more gifted relationship of empathy is broken. This is not the profile of Otacílio Melgaço. All that he can do to be in fraternity with those who discover the ´DNA´ of contemporary music, is done. Through the very characteristics of his creations (far from many ´ingredients´, which I would say, ´impalatables´ - by incompetence, pedantism or sadism - commonly present in this niche); also by the plurality of his influences and compositional babelic alphabets; through our reviews that accompany each launch religiously; by the contact that directly establishes with its public through digital means; by the extensive collateral material available in Internet (located in his own websites - in Portuguese and English -) with interviews, notes, declarations and so on.

It may seem strange to talk about the <<artist's approach>> (theoretically a truism) but, in reality, we know that it does not always occur and when it occurs, it tends to be paternalistic or merely opportunistic. That´s not the case here. For the audience (each and in all its relevance to be considered and treated as Subject and not object or an additional number), having access and understanding and openness to dialogue and willingness to unravel hand in hand ... on the part of Otacílio Melgaço seems to me to appear in the rich context of this work as a clear symbol. <<

A work with jazzy accents & Swedish inflections, encircling force & transcendence; after, for some, a long ´journey of initiation´, with its ´probatory obstacles´ (a propos, less than in other breedings of Melgaço) and ´welcoming enjoyments´ too; after, for others, the confirmation of constructive and high joint sonic actions: ´Stockholmssyndromet´ arrives at the apex of a more artistically intimate relationship among all involved.

[One note I must make regarding the album cover. Through the irreverence of the artist, amid a affair so delicate and controversial, a little humor seemed pretty auspicious.]

Det gäller att smida medan järnet är varmt." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

"The Three Actions expose a strong narrative tendency, pertinent to motif and quite kinematic. A trajectory filmic with, I suppose, beginning/middle/end. A sonic script. A sound calligraphy that describes the provocative subject in focus at the same time by means of an undeniable imagetic potency and the emblematic abstractionism that music invokes like no other art.

>> Some zeniths that should be mentioned:

1 - ´Stockholmssyndromet´ has stylistic points in common with fragments of recent Melgacian ´Unvanity Case Singles Series´ - almost as a kind of summary. It deserves our special interest because demonstrates an active ability to approach certain sonorous languages from various angles - and this is very revealing of the profile of an artist who excels at being versatile;

2 - The multiplicity of instrumental supports continues to be one of the valuable mechanisms typical of Otacílio: electronic interventions, voice, acoustic bass, drums, tenor sax, cello, xylophone etc;

3 - Something that has already been and will continue to be further elaborated in my innumerable considerations to the O.M. albums is the Dismantling of the Melody. In many manners. Or pulverized so that it needs the attention of the listener in order that the own one rebuild it; or is suggested by harmony, however subtly to the point of looking like a puzzle; ..., or even reaching the summit of nonexistence.

Usually it´s the melody that represents the ´fingerprint´ of a composition. In other words, it would be the face of a person. The device for instant identification. The supposed physiognomy, the semblance, the visage of a music. Generally, when someone remembers a song, it´s the melody that will be summoned to memory and sung. Even when it´s an instrumental music, the ´role´ of the melody remains preponderant. Yet in jazz in which there´s openness to ample improvisations, it frequently begins and ends with a theme, that´s, a melodic structure. In classical music, full of meanders, when someone (who is not a musician or not belongs to the specific métier) is asked about his favorite opuses, he´ll still manifest himself by (what we would call) melody or, being more exact, a motif that fulfills this ´function´.

And when this embossed element ceases to serve as a
b-a-n-i-s-t-e-r for the audience? A challenge that Otacílio Melgaço oftentimes makes to us in his vast discography, and, for the most attentive, he, provided with venturesome proposals like this, catapults us to new levels of listening music, to understand music, to intuit and interrelate with the sonic universe ascensionally. ´Stockholmssyndromet´ belongs to such a source. <<

An addendum:

Was recorded live however, although a single Piece, ´Stockholmssyndromet´ is divided into three parts or, according to the composer, Actions, as I began my review. Mr. Melgaço used recordings from performances that occurred on different dates. A detail that could not go unnoticed. Are three complexions, temperaments, textures, moods, colors and so on. The architecture of an original unit per fermented diverseness. Risks like these, Ladies and Gentlemen, differentiate an ordinary artistic conception from an extraordinary one." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

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I - There are four key components that generally lead to the development of Stockholm syndrome: a hostage’s development of positive feelings towards their captor, no previous hostage-captor relationship, a refusal by hostages to cooperate with police forces and other government authorities, and a hostage’s belief in the humanity of their captor, for the reason that when a victim holds the same values as the aggressor, they cease to be perceived as a threat;

II - Stockholm syndrome is considered a "contested illness," due to many law enforcement officers' doubt about the legitimacy of the condition;

III - The FBI's Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly eight percent of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome;

IV - From a psychoanalytic lens, it can be argued that Stockholm syndrome arises strictly as a result of survival instincts. Strentz states, “the victim’s need to survive is stronger than his impulse to hate the person who has created the dilemma.” A positive emotional bond between captor and captive is a “defense mechanism of the ego under stress”. These sentimental feelings are not strictly for show however. Since captors often fear that their affection will be perceived as fake, captives eventually begin to believe that their positive sentiments are genuine;

V - Stockholm syndrome is not merely a condition developed in victims of kidnappings or hostage instances. It can also be applied to a wider variety of situations, inflicting victims of domestic or child abuse, “human trafficking, and incest. Prisoners of war, political terrorism, cult members, concentration camp prisoners, slaves, and prostitutes” can also be fall prey to Stockholm syndrome. It is believed that women are especially subject to develop the condition.

...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.