Critic's evaluation
It is in the last moments of 2022 that a new name officially appears on the Brazilian music circuit. Coming from Paraty, the caiçara quintet Iandé finally presents Sou Teimoso, their debut EP.
Bringing the avant-garde fusion between Rio's pancadão and bossa nova to create a song with innovative melodies and rhythms. It is interesting to note that, even with a visibly more timid, but still existing mood, the sound brings with it a dramatic and suspenseful energy that draws the listener's attention by experimenting with feelings that instigate the defense of the communal good that is nature. This is how Música Da Mata, with its dragged and agitated xote, criticizes, rejects and even protests, in a peaceful way, against illegal deforestation.
More lively and swinging, the song begins with an inviting samba movement recreating the Carioca atmosphere of the 90s. With the flute as a protagonist in the use of textures and flavors, the song brings a sharper development by Cesinha in the construction of the rhythmic beat. With a penetrating narrative, Frasco De Juízo makes the listener not even want to stop paying attention to the plot. Told by Marcello Ribeiro in a way to stimulate curiosity, Frasco De Juízo narrates the misunderstanding, the separation, the loss of synchrony between two people. The interesting thing is that, in the process, Iandé set up Frasco De Juízo in such a way that the two parties, including the woman, played by Analu Caldas, explain their sides of the story. A sad and reflective samba about overcoming.
With the floral and contagious joy of the Pernambuco frevo, it is possible to feel the smile instinctively appear on the listener's face. With a very seductive and inviting beat, whose protagonism falls unquestionably on the waltz between the floral high notes of the Bebeto's piccolo and the booming blast of the Jerome Charlemagne's saxophone, Gênero Dos Anjos hides, among its stunningly joyful rhythm, a social message about freedom, acceptance of differences, and especially harmony as a synonym for tolerance.
Cauê Dok's seven strings guitar appears on the horizon like shy, lazy rays of sunlight, a sun that, without delay, sketches a cheerful, inviting, and contagious smile that makes the sea rise, the waves begin to move the salty waters, and the sand warm up to receive the bathers for another day of fun. Contributing to this climate of relaxation, the melody takes on floral aromas and sweetly cozy flavors through piccolo and flute, which, together with the softened beat of Cesinha's drums, fuses bossa nova and MPB with good versatility. Almost like a sertanejo-nordestino avant-garde mixed with the freshness of the sea, shy notes of xote can be perceived while Ribeiro's soft bittersweet and nasal voice enters the scene delivering even more softness to the song. When he is joined by Analu and her velvety, husky timbre, the song ends up taking on the contours of a tranquillizer that flirts with the format of a nursery rhyme. In truth, Pé Na Areia is a song that, effortlessly and curiously, manages to make the listener's eyes water from its harmonic simplicity and beauty that serve to provide the soundtrack of a plot that also preys on and defends the purity, simplicity, and naïveté of being a child. And being a child here does not necessarily mean being literal, but can be interpreted as a metaphor for making the most of simple things and moments that are so simple and ordinary that they go unnoticed. A dip in the sea and feeling your feet in the sand are just situations in the act of going to the beach, but the sensations they offer are, by themselves, small pleasures that do not always have their values properly appreciated. That is why Pé Na Areias is a song strong in its lightness, a great product for Sou Teimoso.
MPB returns floral and strong in the present spring dawn. With samba in the foot, the title track brings a fun and contagious plot that presents a character embedded in a stubborn behavior, but in a way that sounds like a synonym for perseverance and focus. Graced by a welcome soft-strident suddenly coming from the saxophone, the title track plays with the idea that the stubborn one is always the one who is against common sense preferences while it is graced by a swinging, joyful and sambado sax solo that gives even more sensuality and softness to the song. Curious to note, also, how the lyrical plot of the song seems to be a continuation of the one in Gênero Dos Anjos, after all, in both songs the stubbornness ends up resting on an enviable sense of self-esteem and confidence.
To say that Iandé is the vanguard of MPB may seem cliché, but it is not. Different from names like Tori, Dingo, and Cajupitanga, the quintet from Paraty did not fuse, in Sou Teimoso, only northeastern genres with the national artistic classicism of bossa nova. In the EP, he brought freshness, fun, and protest in millimeter-balanced measures without interfering in its essence.
E Sou Teimoso is an EP that was born interesting. Its delivery is dramatic and tense with a sharp and protesting lyricism against deforestation, the only moment in which Iandé positions himself in a political way, one can say, in the EP. But besides Música Da Mata, which brings in itself the sense of worship and preservation of nature, the EP is still graced with Gênero Dos Anjos, a product that fuses freedom, tolerance, and respect in a captivating way.
These two tracks already give Iandé a mature and conscious social vision. However, Sou Teimoso is not only reflection. It is also fun. And this is exactly what Frasco De Juízo and the title track bring to the spectator: contagion, joy, and an escape from problems for a few minutes.
Not to say that Sou Teimoso thrills with its floral melodies would be a disservice. After all, what Pé Na Areia can do, few songs can do: thrill with little. The EP is simply synonymous with harmony, a harmony that comes from the chemistry of the members, the truth of their lyrics, and the musicality that the quintet shows it has.
Produced by Dok, the EP shows a lyrical-melodic path that mixes entertainment and reflection. It shows rhythmic maturity and boldness in the same measure. It offers a well equalized and clean sound, which makes it easy for the listener to taste MPB, bossa nova, frevo, xote, sertanejo, samba and even the pancadão from Rio de Janeiro.
Closing the technical scope of the EP comes the cover art. Signed by Helena Alba, it doesn't bring any brilliance. Just the quintet in focus in their hometown. Still, it is interesting how the composition of colors and the scenario itself can promote a mixture of peace and tranquillity, sensations very present in the five songs on the work.
Released on 12/07/2022 in an independent way, Sou Teimoso is the denotative definition of the word harmony. With such smoothness, the quintet does a lot without demonstrating effort. After all, the EP presents to Brazil Iandé, a musical group unafraid of experimentation and humility that transcends the limits of sound.
