The São Paulo Tapes

On reading that Robert Wyatt came out of retirement to produce Vasconcelos' eighth album (having previously worked with her on Hih), one has no choice but to sit up and take notice. Perhaps he was drawn by the fact that this is no ordinary collection of Brazilian covers. Every song here has a subtext of anger or sadness, due to it having been written in resistance to Brazil's 21-year fascist dictatorship (1964-1985). However, what's most striking is how much of the music is gentle and even breezy. This is music as refuge as much as protest, in which the true message or intent was veiled in order to avoid censorship, arrest or worse. Particularly pleasing is the jaunty Tom Zé-ish ‘Seta Canas de Imyra’ by Taiguara (originally banned three days after its release). The album ends with Vasconcelos entering the head of the exiled Caetano Veloso as he searches the London skies for flying saucers on the whimsical but melancholic ‘London, London’.
It's a tough call to bring freshness to decades-old material but Vasconcelos does so effortlessly. The São Paulo Tapes is a lovely, understated and thought-provoking album.