Mundo Solo

I have been an admirer of the prolific Brazilian guitarist and composer Fabiano Do Nascimento for several years. Based in Los Angeles, his previous albums such as Dança do Tempo (2015) and Tempo dos Mestres (2017) highlighted his remarkable skills, and an ability to seamlessly weave in and around his musical roots.

On Mundo Solo, Do Nascimento ‘adopt[ed] Hermeto Pascoal’s concept of Universal Music’ in order to try and express all of his musical influences at once. This sees him playing a variety of guitars, including six-, seven- and ten-strings, alongside a host of pedals and synthesisers. As much as I love Hermeto Pascoal, and as much as I enjoyed several tracks on Mundo Solo on an individual basis – the deliciously buzzy ‘Paperstrings’, for example – I personally struggled to enjoy it as one connected entity. For me, the album feels too much like a portfolio of influences that haven’t yet been coherently pieced together, while the inclusion of synthesizers on tracks like ‘Agua de Estrellas’ and ‘Coisa’ dilute rather than strengthen. Once again, Do Nascimento’s musical brilliance burns brightly, but Mundo Solo’s finest moments are its most stripped-down.