Words by Justin Turford
Like Serge Gainsbourg working with Sly and Robbie to make a weirdly decent reggae album (1979’s ‘Aux Armes et cætera’), the ‘outsider’, when collaborating with the right insiders, can add a freshness to a much-loved sound. The German-Spanish songwriter, arranger, guitarist and sound artist Wolfgang Pérez travelled to Rio de Janeiro in 2022, his one term university exchange to study composition stretching out threefold into a full cultural immersion, a new band and this gorgeously crafted album. Influenced by both the original innovators of the loose-fitting Música Popular Brasileira ‘genre’ as well as a new breed of native artists continuing the uniquely Brazilian mix of harmonic complexity and beautifully subversive songwriting, he has managed to create a record that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with contemporary Brazilian peers like Negro Leo and Ricardo Dias Gomes - an unusual place where the avant-garde shares a danson with classic post-bossa songwriting.
Despite his non-Brazilian heritage, Wolfgang seems to have had the spirit of Brazil inside his music since day one. His debut album ‘Who Cares Who Cares’ from 2021 may have been mainly sung in English but his dreamy collage of gentle vocals, close-miked acoustic guitar (and cavaquinho) and leftfield instrumental orchestrations ooze the sunshine essence of MPB. His next album ‘AHORA’ saw him combining his Spanish musical heritage and his experiences in Cologne’s experimental scene whilst wading further into the Brazilian lake, his startling string and horn arrangements becoming ever more expansive and sonically impressive.
After six months of absorbing the chaotic energy and life force of Rio and its environs, a band began to coalesce around Wolfgang. Jams between Luis Magalhães (bass), Pedro Fonte (drums) and Paulo Emmery (electric guitar) led to gigs and at one of these gigs, another wolf entered the story - Angelo Wolf (owner of Wolf Estúdio and engineer for Rio’s shooting stars Bala Desejo, Dora Morelenbaum, Zé Ibarra, Antonio Neves, Ana Frango Elétrico and the evergreen maestro Marcos Valle). Angelo loved Wolfgang’s vibe and songs and generously offered him the Wolf Estúdio residency that inspired and birthed ‘Só Ouço’.
‘Só Ouço’ translates as ‘I Just Listen’ and it’s Wolfgang’s experience of conscientious Brazilian musical study and environmental absorption that fuels the sound of this album. Classically lush Rio musical motifs are blended with more unsettling textures, a not unwarranted contradiction for a record inspired by a city famous for both its beauty and its brutality.
The album opener ‘Radio’ is a sweetly disguised Trojan Horse for the weirder, more experimental impulses of Wolfgang. Featuring Carol Maia, a young guitarist, lyricist and singer who appears on several tracks and who co-wrote this song, ‘Radio’ is a dreamy acoustic guitar song with Wolfgang and Carol’s delicate voices singing in tandem (in German and Portuguese) as distant caverns of echoing textures created by the transdisciplinary sound artist Bella Comson whoosh narcotically away. Lowkey gorgeous, the song feels like a light hand brushing your face as you slumber away.
Although he doesn’t play on the album, the great multi-instrumentalist and composer Antonio Neves helped pull together the brass and wind players for the sessions and on ‘Tristeza’, we first hear the ensemble in their full throated glory. A glorious intro of competing, swirling flutes, clarinets and horns suddenly drops into a deliciously easy samba that belies the sadness of its title. Fabulously arranged, the song and Wolfgang’s Caetano Veloso-esque voice feel deeply romantic yet there’s a very subtle edge that grows in intensity as the horns scrape the softness away.
‘Tá Errado’ (It’s Wrong) hits the abrasion button with metallic, militaristic percussion, Wolgang’s voice teetering into pained Thom Yorke territory and a filthy bass line slowly swinging as wildly arranged horns add some free jazz frisson. The track switches up in the final third, with a teasing carnaval pick up of energy before spiralling down into a coda of avant-garde noisiness reminiscent of post-tropicália artists like Thiago França.
The church bells that accompany the eerie, dream-fuelled ‘So No Sonho’ become more and more dissociative as the song expands over six tripped-out minutes. Woozy with psychedelic samples and oddly tuned, Carol and Bella return to join Wolfgang with some quite lovely vocals but it’s an unnerving sense of waking-up-from-anaesthetic that pervades this track. Too intense to be soporific but paradoxically drowsy enough to lie down to, this isn’t the sound of Rio that the casual Brazilian music listener might expect but actually has a strong lineage going back to the early 70s.
The beautifully summery title track ‘Só Ouço’ shuffles along with gorgeous but simple interweaving guitars, shuffling jazzy drums and lush sampled strings, always rhythmic, only pausing the groove for a couple of startling moments of Gong-like punctuation before returning to the main engine of the composition. There’s no carefully crafted middle eight and chorus this time but it really doesn’t need it.
The homesick, freakout romance of ‘Leva-Me Pra Casa’ sounds both indebted to the proggier Anglocentric end of Brazil whilst adding a modern twist. Vanessa Rodrigues’s swirling Hammond organ contribution and the main Beatles-esque guitar line sing of 1968 but the song doesn’t sit still long enough to be placed in any particular box as Wolfgang showcases all of his compositional, arranging and instinctively experimental skills on this weirdly compelling number.
The obliquely titled ‘O Mundo É Um Moinho’ (tr: The World Is A Mill) is a stunningly lovely guitar and voice track reminiscent of João Gilberto, slightly broken by the looping out-of-time distorted pulse and the amp hum and tickle of Thiago Nassif’s gritty electric guitar. One of the most exciting of Rio’s new breed, Thiago makes something mesmeric out of something that could be annoying.
“And Suddenly It’s Over” sings Wolfgang but it’s not quite. Lushly orchestrated and vividly cinematic, the penultimate track ‘E De Repente Acabou’ on this wonderful album has a wave-your-floaty-arms pastoral energy that evokes the aesthetic of late 60s French film soundtracks at their prettiest. Wolfgang’s voice sounds poignant, happy and wide-eyed, Carol’s faraway coos and some sublimely arranged flutes add another eloquent dimension of rainbow colouring.
The singalong glory of the closing track ‘Nem Quero Asas’ throws everything at it. Huge brass, Hammond organ, a choir of friends from Wolfgang’s farewell party and an explosive torrent of communal spirit. “I don't have, nor do I want, wings” they sing in unison after an intro of Wolfgang praising his benefactor ”Today we’ll be in the studio mixing weird ass samba with Angelo”. Joyous and full-throttle, this is a victorious final lap of the recording process.
As previously mentioned, Wolfgang may be an ‘outsider’ by blood but through spirit, hard work and talent, and of course with some help from his brilliant new Carioca family, he has created a sensational record that manages to be respectful of Rio’s varied musical traditions, without losing his own distinctive identity. Muito da hora! 10/10.
Released on July 18th 2025 on Hive Mind Records!