Ver Tente

The fourth album by Brazilian singer-songwriter Maria Rita Stumpf, Ver Tente, brings together her four decades of musical output. After a 20-year hiatus, in 2017 she re-released her 1988 debut album Brasileira – inspiring her renascent cult status around Brazil. Stumpf’s eagerly awaited new album Ver Tente includes adaptations of MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) classics by leading Brazilian artists including Dorival Caymmi, Milton Nascimento and Djavan, as well as five of her own compositions.

From simple acoustic strings to immersive orchestration, the album spans a vast range, featuring everything from church organ to Andean charango. And it showcases Stumpf’s stunning vocal versatility, from the lullaby of ‘Mata Virgem’ to the strident chant of ‘Troca de Dono’. Some songs, such as ‘O Vento’, are sung in Indigenous languages, adding an elemental feel to the music. The overriding themes are of the ‘real world’ and nature, subjects close to Stumpf’s heart. Or as she puts it succinctly: ‘After my last album Inkiri Om, this one completes a cycle, one of creativity and of life.’ At just under 34 minutes long, it’s rather on the short side, but the broad variety of the ten tracks more than compensates. Not a dud track in the whole album.