U n v a n i t y C a s e S i n g l e s S e r i e s

I S S

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 10:29] 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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{Note by P.S.P. -

U N V A N I T Y
C A S E
S I N G L E S
S E R I E S,

Eight releases that portray, among many glimpsed, a Melgacian sonorous fantastical microcosm.

Symphony, suite, sonata, cantata, pastoral, madrigal, sarabanda, fantasia, fugue, rhapsody, capriccio, passacaglia, berceuse, tombeau, lied, concertino, gimnopedia, oratorio, mass, operetta, opera ... are customary part of the compositional vocabulary of Otacílio Melgaço. Here and now we come in contact with other perspectives (with one or two exceptions) that are beyond the frontiers of modern classical genre. Extrapolations already contained in several albums produced by him and which are also treasures of his vast discography but never before gathered in a Series.

An image full of perspicacity when we think of a portable ´compendium´ of quite personal complementary aesthetic man-made objects (and here I´m referring to the adaptation of the term by Mr. Melgaço), the Vanity Case is a small handbag used for carrying cosmetics or toiletries.

Unvanity Case (Singles Series). It´s possible to perceive at least two fundamentals embedded in the O.M. wordplay. There´s the properly denial of ´vanity´ (the dictionarist meaning: excessive pride in or admiration of one's own appearance or achievements; the quality of being worthless or futile. So he invents a neologism to reveal this clear denudation) and also the symbolist recognition of artifacts gathered in the same casing as is the special case, for example and in addition to others, of a mirror.

In a fashion, the message that the composer and multi-instrumentalist conveys to us is clear:

He looks at himself, limpidly. Something a great artist is often doing. Yes, paradoxically, Melgaço does not give up (peer through the subsequent figures of speech) ´cosmetic & toiletry´ elements of music (timbres, harmonies, durations, pauses, melodies, dynamics, rhythms, pitches, articulations, textures, technicalities, arrangements, mixes, masterings ...) and, consequently (as expected and desired): he shows himself to us. Something that often a great artist should do with transparency and, of course, a certain mystery. Another paradox. He shows himself to us just as in Greek tragedy/comedy, the Mask (again: ´cosmetic & toiletry´) does not hide: it brings even more to light who the character is.

And, resuming the title exegesis, reflecting on the portable character: in the condition of ´perpetuum mobile´, every EP brings us to a peculiar place (situated in some historical snapshot) in one of the four corners of the world or even orbiting the planet earth. This conceptual ballast, therefore, is a mention of travels and journeys and trips and gigs (and rays and twinkles) and sagas perpetrated by the artist. I draw attention to the fact that the relationship between the niche itself and the respective musical proposal is direct, bright. ´Moto perpetuo´ as much as the experiments with his music as being a restless, challenger creator - who takes risks in constant search and daring -. Creator in its integrity/fragmentation, complexity/plainness; O.M.: an ontological mosaic, a kaleidoscope in person always in displacement and in our direction, provoking us but, I have no doubt, in humanistic celebration. This, citing only one of the facets of an Art-in-Magnification as is the Melgacian.

´Everything is metaphor´, Otacílio usually utters. And when we realize the polysemous richness of his inventions (nor need I say that the vocable 'case' is equally read as ´an instance of a particular situation; an example of something occurring´), we can conclude how absolutely everything that the/this artist plays can be an exciting, constructive and Graceful fluxuosity. Through the looking glass, the reflector, the speculum! And who inhabits the other side of the mirror?

Eight times,
the response that - hitherto - echoes eight times,
Ladies and Gentlemen, is:
E a c h O n e O f U s.}

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"A flash, a cut in time that brings together three niches seasonally exploited by Otacílio Melgaço: noise music, sci-fi pointillisms and the iconoclastic revivification of classical references.

I emphasize the incidentality of the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, an organ piece written, according to its oldest extant sources, by Bach. It has a claim to being the most famous work in the repertoire dedicated to this instrument. [The soundtrack to Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange was released to accompany the 1971 film of the same name. Comprises classical and electronic synthetic music composed by Wendy Carlos (then Walter Carlos). Edward Elgar, Henry Purcell, Gioachino Rossini, Rimsky-Korsakov ... are quoted but nothing was more striking than ´March´ - based on the choral movement of the Ninth Symphony by Beethoven -. (It was the first recorded song featuring Vocoder for the singing; synthpop bands often cite it as their inspiration). I consider the result of Melgaço's masterful approach to Johann Sebastian Bach assuredly comparable to what Carlos did having Ludwig van Beethoven as starting point.]

Another confluent diversity - in ´ISS´ - that deserves my spotlight is the multiple simultaneous layers of ´sonic squamae´ proposed by O.M. (concept that, for me, extrapolates the traditionally adopted as Harmony), as well as his vortical timbristic ´alchemies´ and the unsophismable ability to transform a sound structure into a true aesthetic odyssey.

A detail of great value: heard in one of the earliest parts of the present work is the voice of Vladimir Vladimirovitch Maiakovski." (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

"ISS, International Space Station.

A habitable artificial satellite, in low Earth orbit. Its first component launched into orbit in 1998, and the ISS is now the largest artificial body in orbit and can often be seen with the naked eye from Earth. The ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar arrays, and other components. ISS components have been launched by Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets, and American Space Shuttles. The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and other fields. Is suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the Moon and Mars.

The definition of what properly such orbital station is (its ´technophysiology´, its constituents and so on) ... seems to me to be a perfect analogy in favor of our understanding of the complexion of Mr. Melgaço's composition here in focus. In all this context that gains the astronomical artistic propulsion of O.M., what I can do, without any hesitation, is repeat Rainer Maria Rilke: 'The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.' In other words, equally according to Otacílio Melgaço, the future is always now." (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

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I - The ISS maintains an orbit with an altitude of between 330 and 435 km (205 and 270 mi) by means of reboost manoeuvres using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft. It completes 15.54 orbits per day;

II - The ISS is the ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, following the Soviet and later Russian Salyut, Almaz, and Mir stations as well as Skylab from the US. The station has been continuously occupied for 16 years and 82 days since the arrival of Expedition 1 on 2 November 2000. This is the longest continuous human presence in low Earth orbit, having surpassed the previous record of 9 years and 357 days held by Mir. The station is serviced by a variety of visiting spacecraft: the Russian Soyuz and Progress, the American Dragon and Cygnus, the Japanese H-II Transfer Vehicle, and formerly the Space Shuttle and the European Automated Transfer Vehicle. It has been visited by astronauts, cosmonauts and space tourists from 17 different nations.

After the US Space Shuttle programme ended in 2011, Soyuz rockets became the only provider of transport for astronauts at the International Space Station, and Dragon became the only provider of bulk cargo return to Earth services (downmass capability of Soyuz capsules is very limited);

III - The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies: NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA, ESA, and CSA. The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental treaties and agreements. The station is divided into two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), which is shared by many nations. As of January 2014, the American portion of ISS is being funded until 2024. Roscosmos has endorsed the continued operation of ISS through 2024, but has proposed using elements of the Russian Orbital Segment to construct a new Russian space station called OPSEK.

On 28 March 2015, Russian sources announced that Roscosmos and NASA had agreed to collaborate on the development of a replacement for the current ISS. NASA later issued a guarded statement expressing thanks for Russia's interest in future co-operation in space exploration, but fell short of confirming the Russian announcement.

...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.