Laroyê

This debut album by Hungarian producer and multi-instrumentalist Szabolcs Bognár (aka Àbáse) is exactly what its title means in the West African Yoruba language: a collaboration. On his previous EPs, Invocation and Body Mind Spirit, Àbáse also played alongside a large cast of musicians, from his hometown of Budapest as well as from Brazil and Africa, espousing his drive to forge new sounds from mixing genres and styles. Now, spending five months in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador to record Laroyê, Àbáse has brought together veteran and rising Brazilian musicians such as Letieres Leite, Jadson Xabla, Afrojazz and others. The resulting album is a high-energy outpouring of traditional Brazilian MPB (Música Popular Brasileiro), samba and jazz, with hip-hop, Afro-funk and new-soul, exploring the country’s rich Afro-Brazilian heritage.

With 13 tracks running to nearly an hour, it’s a good-value production too. Àbáse’s hypnotic synths dominate the first and last few tracks, with gentler ballads such as the beautiful ‘Ela’, between. And the soaring flute of Fanni Zahár (who also contributed to Invocation) blends a rich cocktail in ‘Agangatolú’. The highlight track for me though has to be ‘Awo Ossanyin’, at over six minutes the longest on the album. It is a dazzling symphony of fluid guitar, jazzy sax and vocals, with the percussion pulsing in the background. Sublime.