Pedra Branca

Author: Roberdo
Date: Feb 23, 2009
Views: 2929

Interview with the unique Brazilian ethno-electro fusion band


Roberdo: What about the name "Pedra Branca" - what does it mean, whats the story behind it?


Luciano: Pedra Branca is an indigenous entity, a shamanic healer, who has found the essence of the sound that we are doing since the beginning of the group. Not performing healing rituals, but expressing our self through the art, a cure results that may also be sensitivity, new perceptions, synesthetic motivation, cultural and artistic philosophy.

Roberdo: What was the idea to found the band?

Luciano: It was founded in 2001 by me and Aquiles Ghirelli with the proposal to create ethnic music, electronic, universal, experimental, and contemporary, but with an influence of the music of Brazil, with characteristics typical Brazilian and merging with all the world music and jazz, the digital beats, the ancestral and the futurisme together.

Roberdo: Please tell us about the band, the members and which instruments they play!

Luciano:

Luciano Sallun - producer and artistic director and musical group's conception of the show, in addition to playing live instruments such as sitar, theremin, steel drum, jawharp and others.

Aquiles Ghirelli - instrumentalist who performs live playing didgeriddo, tabla, voice and others.

João Ciriaco - DJ and instrumentalist who performs live playing tanpura, percussions, sound effects and low.

Daniel Puerto Rico - instrumentalist who performs live playing Arabian, African and Brazilian percussions.

Sandoval Junior Paixão - instrumentalist who performs live playing bass and synthesizer.

Ana Eliza Colomar - instrumentalist who performs live playing transverse flute, saxophone, clarinet and duduk.

Dancers and Performers

Laíz Latenek - acting in concert of the group making a fusion of many languages and ethnic dance, performance, the belly dance and circus.

Fernanda Bueno - dancer of contemporary dance, he served in the Dance Company of Diadema and currently in the City Ballet of São Paulo.

Marilia Coelho - artist circus dancer and contemporary, with fabric air acts, stilts and contemporary dance.

Cris Miguel - works with gypsy dance and classical Indian dance

Enoque Santos - is dancer brazilian african  studies and all of symbology and video candomblé and African culture in Brazil, as well as search unite this language with contemporary dance.

Visual Arts

Alexandre Takashi – photographer, designer and Vj, where he worked developing the visual arts project with research that can lead and interact with music and body with the images.

Roberdo: Who inspires you? Which musicians do you admire? 

Luciano: Many things inspire me, it really is a universe of major influences, reaching from Mongolia, India, Arab, African, Japanese, music from Brazil, Indian, Portuguese and Spanish medieval music, gypsy music, Romanian, very much jazz, fusion, and experimental. The electronic music outside the dance floor, like downbeat, trip hop, ambient and global beats.

Musicians, producers and groups such as Nana Vasconcelos, Hermeto Pascoal, Villa Lobos, Kocani, Omar Faruk, Egberto Gismonti, Ott, Massive Attack, Alice Coltrane, Mynta, Ravi Shankar, Codona, Glen Velez, Stephen Kent, and many other.

Roberdo: What was your best live experience ever? Please tell us about that!

Luciano: Many of the experiences we had live with Pedra Branca are special, but one of the best was without doubt the last Boom Festival (Portugal), where we had a very strong energy on stage and in the audience. Also at Universo Paralello (Brazil), the audience began to dance in the rain in a large collective energy catharsis.
 
Roberdo: At which events do you play mostly? Only Psy Trance Events or also other events?

Luciano: We played mostly at non-PsyTrance events, such as in institutions, in concert halls, cultural centers, theaters and alternative spaces and places for shows.

Roberdo: How is the feedback from other scenes beside the Psy Trance scene?

Luciano: We have lots of good feedback from the public in other scenes, and response from Indian and Eastern musicians, Zen music, instruemental, world music and jazz. Thus we see many people in our concert halls and in theaters. The diversity of age and also the mixture of different lifestyles in the audience. Another thing happening after working in the scene for 8 years is that people get kind of old and do not attend parties any more but prefer live concerts.

Roberdo: You have a new album ready now. Please tell us a little bit about this!
 
Luciano: Yes, the album is called “Organismo Eletrônico” and brings an intense fusion of organic and electronic sounds. Also its grooves very well together with many tribal and ambient climates. We are launching it now in Brazil and want to do the launch in Europe in the summer.

Roberdo: Anything left to say?

Luciano: Yes, I would like to create more channels of information with the audience and organizers of European events, our contact is below for those who want to know more information and we can exchange more energy and art.

Roberdo: Thanks for the interview!

 
www.myspace.com/pedrabranca

 

 

Author: sergiaddharma / Date: 07.11.2009 20:08:43


Obrigado Luciano! nos vemos pronto en Bahia ;) Boom

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