Terceiro Mundo

The opening sound bite of Terceiro Mundo, ‘EntreMundos’, refers back to the São Paulo group’s 2017 second album of the same title [reviewed in Songlines #128] and suggests that the ten-piece Orquestra’s fifth album forms the third of an instrumental trilogy (as does the title, meaning ‘Third World’). After the somewhat overreaching ambition of their third (vocal) album, the Paulistas have gone back to basics on their most consistent and satisfying release to date. Mainly recorded live in one take, Terceiro Mundo ‘is about ‘the groove,’ they explain, ‘with strong influences from funk and soul music, powerful brass sections, sound spices from different places and cultures.’ So there’s a jazzy Afrobeat feel to ‘Peixeira Amolada & Quebra Queixo’, Oriental tinges to ‘O Nascimento Do Sol Invencível’, funk and reggae influences in ‘Mariposa Tigre’ – ‘constructed almost like a collage,’ indeed. For all the jazzy experimentation and tricky time signatures, Nomade Orquestra’s latest release is thrilling instrumental music for the body and soul that somehow melds Brazil’s past, present and future.