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A BARCA DO SOL

A Barca Do Sol

Prog Folk


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A Barca Do Sol A Barca Do Sol album cover
4.03 | 51 ratings | 7 reviews | 39% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 1974

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. A Primeira Batalha (3:06)
2. Brilho Da Noite (4:01)
3. Arremesso (3:41)
4. As Boas Consciências (3:06)
5. Caminhão (4:27)
6. Lady Jane (2:24)
7. Dragão Da Bondade (2:58)
8. Alaska (3:31)
9. Fantasma Da ópera (2:44)
10. Corsário Satã (4:07)
11. A Barca Do Sol (3:13)

Total time 37:18

Line-up / Musicians

- Beto Resende / electric & acoustic guitars, viola, percussion
- Nando Carneiro / acoustic guitar, vocals
- Muri Costa / acoustic guitar, viola, vocals
- Marcelo Bernardes / flute
- Jaques Morelenbaum / cello, violin, vocals
- Marcos Stull / acoustic & electric basses
- Marcelo (Gordo) Costa / percussion

With:
- Egberto Gismonti / synth (3,8), producer

Releases information

Artwork: Luis Carlos Lindenberg

LP Continental ‎- 1-01-404-092 (1974, Brazil)
LP Phonodisc ‎- 034.405.490 (1988, Brazil)

Thanks to ProgLucky for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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Buy A BARCA DO SOL A Barca Do Sol Music



A BARCA DO SOL A Barca Do Sol ratings distribution


4.03
(51 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(39%)
39%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(35%)
35%
Good, but non-essential (24%)
24%
Collectors/fans only (2%)
2%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

A BARCA DO SOL A Barca Do Sol reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Prog-Brazil
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars It's a five stars folk-progressive album! If you really like baroque-folk-prog, you will love it. I recommend that songs: Lady Jane (a very melancholy piece), Dragão da Bondade (Goodness Dragon), and the song-title (The Ferry of the Sun). It is all acoustic, with cello, viola, flute and wonderful poetry (singing in portuguese, by the way). If you find that album (I know, it's very difficult), listen it!
Review by hdfisch
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars I cannot share that much the (well excused) enthusiasm of my fellow reviewer and would not agree to his opinion about this album as masterpiece in folk progressive. It might have been an excellent one on a national level, actually I'm not aware of many other Brazilian bands in this sub-genre. I listened once to a few songs by CALIX which I liked quite a lot. BARCA DO SOL was presenting here mainly renditions of their traditional and hispanic music based on American folk. Admittedly the musicianship is excellent with a rich selection of instruments like cello, viola, flute and very good percussion.

A primeira batalha is a nice song with strong Hispanic influences using typical castagnettes, acoustic guitar, viola and flute. Brilho da noite is a rather quirky one with intense, at times even a bit too high pitched vocs, but great flute, strings and percussion. With Arremesso the mood is shifting very suddenly to a very mellow and melancholic one. Starting rather slow the song has every now and then some more vivid interludes with nice flute. Next two songs are as well rather quiet ones, not really bad actually, but sounding not very exciting (at least to me) as well apart of the closing part of Caminhão having some very good flute and cello playing. Lady Jane, which became quite famous in their country as I read somewhere and had been inspired both by the Stones' song as well by a book of D. H. Lawrence cannot hit my attraction either. Of the rest of the songs I can call only Corsário Satã a more interesting one with great flute, strings and percussion again, but this might be as well a matter of taste.

As a SUMMARY I couldn't say that A BARCA DO SOL's debut was a bad one, but it's as well not on par with excellent records from this sub-genre in an international comparison. Anyway it's a quite GOOD album and I would recommend it to anyone who's interested in the Brazilian prog folk scene.

Review by Atkingani
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
4 stars Now is the moment where I have to silence my heart to be able to hear my mind. but it's tough! Listening to A BARCA DO SOL, and more specifically their homonymous 1974 debut is like doing a regression to some of the most beautiful days of my youth years; also some hard moments when my beloved country was ruled by a dictatorship may be displayed there. I had to hear and re- hear again and again "A Barca Do Sol" and I have to confess that goose bumps and wet eyes appeared frequently. Anyway, life goes on.

What band were they? To be short: simply a fine group of some of the most talented musicians who played in Brazil in the 1970s. Jacques Morelenbaum, leader, cello player and main vocalist, is nowadays one of the most celebrated Brazilian maestros; Ritchie, an English-born artist, soon engaged with legendary band Vimana (hard-progressive stuff with only a single issued) and later trailed a new-wave singer career; the other fellows, like Nando Carneiro, Beto Resende and Alan Pierre, are all of them Premier League people; last but not the least, the producer and inspirational personality, Egberto Gismonti, a giant that needs no introduction. Another curiosity: they started playing as a backing band for a bossa-nova singer - very weird!

What kind of music did they play? Folk or folk-progressive, doubtless. Although they were basically city guys it's clear that they researched a lot to grab all possible sounds emanating from Brazil's heart of the country. Lyrics are great, very introspective and a bit sour, but generally with fine poetry; on-line translation cannot help here, unfortunately and even experienced translators may have some problems with so many references that are hard to display in a different language. There's a torrent of singing parts which may frighten foreign ears but the musical solutions are awesome: cello, viola, flutes and guitars work splendidly.

All songs keep a certain resemblance among them providing the album with a conceptual soul, not totally right unless you could focus the action in its related time - tough if you don't live the place and time. 'A primeira batalha', the opening track is an exquisite and amusing song, with a noticeable South American aroma which is pretty and pleasant. 'Arremesso', probably the best album's track, is full of reminiscences with its poignant and sorrowful vocals and accompaniment; this particular song is when my heart beats franticly for so many remembrances of lived times.

'Lady Jane' shares the title with the Stones' song but it's really another one and a good one too - the Brazilian way is so typical and remarkable that the tunes become clearly catchy. 'A Barca do Sol', the title-track and ending song is unique and where the band show their skilful and capacity. Other album tracks are, trust me, from average to good.

This album presents some of the best progressive moments produced in Brazil during the 1970s and even not being a masterpiece, it's very recommendable to be added to any music collection.

Review by CCVP
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars This is actually their worst, believe it or not!

It is really impressive what a good research can do, and the guys of A Barca do Sol know it. Being all of them born and raised in Rio de Janeiro they had to do a lot of research about traditional brazilian folk music to develop their music until they could present this album. Of course, there is also a good dosage of classical music influence also, specially when you see the instruments they used, like cello, violins, viola and piano, when actually the instrument usually used in traditional brazilian folk music is the rabeca, some kind of badly made violin.

Some people argue that this band has some Tull influence and that can maybe me true in this album, specially because of some flute parts that indeed remember Ian Anderson. However, the influence stops right there because, unlike Jethro Tull, the music presented by the band is very soft and sweet, unlike the folkish ahrd rock made by Tull. In fact, it is quite hard to understand why this band is classified as progressive rock since it lacks the ROCK department, using mostly acoustic instruments like acoustic guitars and the mentioned cello, violas, violins, piano and flutes.

The lyrics here, like the lyrics of their next album, are good poems talking about many different themes. The poetry here, in fact, only cares about making beautiful poetry, and thats it.

However, there is a problem with this album: it is kind of raw, when compared to the other works of the band, like Deopis do Verão and Pirata, and that is why it only deserves 4 stars.

Review by Tarcisio Moura
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars This is a very interesting album by one of the most underrated brazilian bands of all time. It´s almost totally acoustic, with some great guitar, cello and flute passages. Percussion is also very well done. The vocals are ok, though. They sometimes remind me of the legendary Secos & Molhados, but surely A Barca Do Sol lacks the vocal prowess of a Ney Matogrosso. Nevertheless, they made some excellent music, a kind of acoustic prog music, very much song oriented, but still quite bold for the time (including the surrealistic lyrics, written by poet Geraldo Carneiro). All the musicians are skilled and almost all of them would leave their mark in the Brazilian music scene in the following years. Cello player Jacques Morelebaum (only sixteen at the time) for example, would go on to become one of the most celebrated maestro and arrangers of the country, he would latter work with such legends as Tom Jobim and Caetano Veloso.

This debut LP was produced by the celebrated artist and multi instrumentalist Egberto Gismonti (who also played synthesizer in two tracks, but it is hardly noticed). He did a fine job, and the recording quality is great for the time. It was well preserved in the CD format, fortunately (specially if you buy the two LPs in one CD version, together with their second album).

The album is not really a masterpiece, though. It is very good and quite innovative for the time, but this one is for the prog folk clique only. Those quite obscure lyrics and the sometimes dissonant harmonies are not everyone´s cup of tea (which is probably the reason they never reached a wider audience). Anyway, the CD is very well worth a listen and certainly will please anyone who´s interested in the acoustic side of prog. With tight arrangements and not much noodling, they deliver some precious short songs that still are quite demanding for the average player. Sometimes less is more. 3,5 stars.

Latest members reviews

5 stars One of the first progressive folk albums of Brazil I listen after my period of heavy metal and, loving the flute of Ian Anderson, begin with the chase for flute bands. Curiously enough, I get to the firts album of A Barca do Sol instead of Bacamarte... really cant remeber why. Their first album w ... (read more)

Report this review (#932978) | Posted by GKR | Tuesday, March 19, 2013 | Review Permanlink

5 stars Ok, certainly it isn't a masterpiece of the whole progressive universe, though it's one of the best of what Brazilian prog has to offer. It gets to be lisergic without any special sound effect, only with acoustic guitars and flutes(mainly). The singing, it's a faked happy tune with a huge melanco ... (read more)

Report this review (#49698) | Posted by | Saturday, October 1, 2005 | Review Permanlink

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