M. Takara, Carla Boregas - Grande Massa D'Agua

Mauricio Takara and Carla Boregas have long been key players in the experimental and underground music scene in São Paulo, Brazil and have recently relocated in Berlin.

Grande Massa D'Agua (Great Body of Water) is their second album as a duo and it sees them continue to explore themes related to water as they dive into uncharted musical depths. In discussing the duo's relationship with water, Mauricio said:

“...In the beginning of the pandemic we decided to take a turn and move to a small beach close to São Paulo, and that's right in the middle of the rainforest, so by then water definitely took a major role in our lives. We were living right in between the ocean and a waterfall, it´d rain for days on a roll sometimes and it was an open house where we had the sound of rain 360 degrees around us... I kinda think our music has a little of those different dynamics of water in its different states. Also, it might seem strange but São Paulo is a city in the water too, and it has a very chaotic relationship with it.”

The music itself is difficult to pin down, always kinetic and driven by Takara's fluid, nimble percussion; there's a freeness to the sound as a whole, but also an atmosphere of tight discipline as the pair harness and channel the elemental force from which they've drawn the inspiration for their works. At times the lines between Takara's skittish percussion and Boregas' idiosyncratic synth work and sound manipulation blur into flowing rivers or torrents of sound - here, both water and sound have the ability to awaken in us different memories, and emotional or physical states.

If you're looking for precedents we could say their sound contains clear influences from jazz, the most heavily manipulated vintage dub or krautrock, the outer limits of what punk can be. Possible contemporaries might include Holy Tongue, Shackleton or Oren Ambarchi, but really you'll just have to listen and draw your own conclusions.

Carla Boregas' other projects include Fronte Violeta and Rakta, as well as being a prolific solo artist and co-founder of AUTA, a venue dedicated to experimental music in São Paulo (2019-2020), and the record label Dama Da Noite.

Mauricio Takara also plays with the bands Hurtmold and São Paulo Underground (with trumpeter Rob Mazurek from Chicago), as well as sitting in on live sessions with an array of improv / experimental / jazz figures such as Pharoah Sanders, Damo Suzuki, Yusef Lateef, Joe Lally, Naná Vasconcelos, Prefuse 73, Makoto Kawabata.