Introduction by George Christian

""Nothingness, ou... O Vento" is an album that took a long time to be discovered and to arise. Its real beginning came during the pandemic of COVID-19, in 2021, in which I was searching for a new sound in my guitar playing during the self-imposed isolation period. The pandemic has had its retreat, as well as a new political period has started in my country, Brazil, in 2023. The album indirectly speaks about this transitional period, as much as it’s a reflection of my own urge of living through music-making.

Thanks to my friend artist Iarly Patricio, I’ve had an epiphany of an album I could release having her charcoal carving picture as a cover. The cover art blends her picture of a face and an A.I. representation of a picture based upon the art of the painter William Turner. The music was recorded sporadically from February 2021 until January 2023. As a result of such individual research, this is a very percussive album, even when having noises, with drones and electric moments by the end. I aimed to make a blend between the new African desert blues with a percussive Brazilian guitar with it, as much as working on the exploration of different textures.

The starting point as a conceptual inspiration for the album is the song “O Vento” by Dorival Caymmi. I read it as a mystical and, at the same time, very naturalistic invocation of the wind as much as of the work of the fishermen. Both in its ventures (peixe que dá dinheiro = fish that bring money) and obstacles (Vento que vira o barco = Wind that turn the ship). I consider Caymmi’s guitar playing on “Canções Praieiras” (“Songs of the Beach”), a collection of songs that he released in 1949, somehow as a spiritual precursor to the guitar music I’ve been aiming to crystalize as my own throughout the years. And the fact that I’m living in the region that he once lived and had the inspiration of such songs reinforces the spiritual linkage that I have with him.

“Nothingness, ou… O Vento” has a progression that comes from concrete, naturalistic sounds, to more abstract ones. It’s still a guitar album at heart. However, it gives room also for other instruments to enrich the narrative and the concept. I’m the sole musician here, but the inspiration that I’ve taken from Caymmi or my aforementioned friend makes the album less lonesome than it is. Disintegration is the key theme of the album. It's not only all about the power of the wind, but also the way the wind disintegrates what’s solid, moves seas and changes lives. And, so, I’m singing and playing these sounds as a hope of changes in our way of living and, of course, listening to music with new ears."