top of page
Search

Global Music Column – February

  • Feb 24, 2024
  • 1 min read

Amaro Freitas – Y’Y

Brazilian pianist Amaro Freitas approaches the 88 keys of his piano as if they were drums. Across three albums since his 2016 debut Sangue Negro, Freitas has honed a style of muscular, complex rhythm within jazz improvisation. Often playing different metres in each hand, he encompasses everything from folk maracatu polyrhythms on 2018’s Afrocatu to staccato, mechanical repetitions on 2021’s Sankofa.


His latest album, Y’Y, puts this rhythmic playfulness in service to a spiritual theme. Dedicated to the preservation of the Amazon, the nine tracks of Y’Y (meaning “water” or “river” in Sateré Mawé dialect) use whistles, prepared piano and percussion to evoke the sounds of the rainforest and its mythical beings. Opener Mapinguari (Encantado da Mata) sees Freitas playing twinkling phrases over shakers and cymbal washes, reflecting the rustling of leaves; dedicated to the “water mother” spirit, Uiara (Encantada da Água) – Vida e Cura develops a cascading rhythm over dampened piano strings to create the effect of water rushing.


Read the review in the Guardian.


[This piece was published on 23/02/24]

Recent Posts

See All
Global Music Column – May

Serokolo 7 – Maramfa Musick Pro South Africa pulses with electronic music. From the slow-bubbling feel of amapiano to the frenetic pace of Durban’s gqom, Soweto’s marimba-heavy shangaan electro and th

 
 
 
Global Music Column – April

Sanaya Ardeshir – Hand of Thought A s Sandunes, Indian producer Sanaya Ardeshir has spent the last decade exploring the melodic side of electronic music with three ebullient albums that drew on the br

 
 
 
Global Music Column – March

Simo Cell and Abdullah Miniawy – Dying Is the Internet E gyptian singer Abdullah Miniawy has spent the past decade lending his melismatic voice and Arabic classical maqam melodies to a fascinating ran

 
 
 

Comments

bottom of page