SATWA

Considered the debut of the art collective Abrakadabra formed by the two friends Lula Côrtes and Lailson de Holanda Cavalcanti, this unique album came about after the duo had traveled around the world and was influenced by the exotic sounds of Northern Africa and India. The album was part of a greater underground movement called Udigrudi which took place in the Brazilian city of Recife and was prevalent in all forms of media including plays, texts, cinema, plastic arts and of course music. The musical aspect focused around a post-Woodstock-ian psychedelic scene which most commonly connected aspects of British pop, Brazilian tropicalia and other forms of psychedelic rock.

SATWA was the duo's sole collaborative album that they recorded in 1973 and was based around the dueling aspects of Lailson's 12-string viola and the trichord which is a popular zither that Lula picked up in Morocco. While officially released under the moniker LULA & LAILSON the project was known as SATWA as well. While technically a duo, SATWA included Robertinho de Recife who played lead guitar on the track "Blue do Cachorro Muito Louco." While primarily an instrumental album, a few vocal parts spring up randomly. While solely expressed in terms of acoustic psychedelic folk music, the ten tracks were inspired by all musical forms of the era including rock, folk, blues, psychedelia and Indian ragas with the sitar being the only other instrument to be heard on the album.

The original album is quite rare. It was recorded on the 11th of January 1973 at the Rozenblit studio and limited to a scant few copies distributed completely independently and later Lula would come to find out that his approach was a first in Brazil which makes this one of the nation's first indie records and all of this despite the fact that Rozenblit was a record label as well. Despite its extreme rarity the album has achieved a veritable cult status as a very important milestone in the Brazilian recording industry and has remained an underground favorite release however with the renewed love of all things psychedelic from the 60s and 70s across the entire world, SATWA has been reissued issued both on vinyl and CD since its initial release.

This is a magic mushroom type experience and features two guys simply strumming away lush chords in jamming fashion with the only break from the monotony coming from Robertinho's guitar soloing on the bluesy acoustic rock track "Blue do Cachooro Muito Louco." This is one for the trippers as it sounds like campfire songs being played in the woods with no worries about embellishments to spice it up. Its a bit underwhelming as an active listening experience but gently pacifies the soul if played as background music. It's one of those hippie anthemic types of album that represents a time and age of innocence before the world got all gnarly on us. It's an interesting artifact from the Brazilian subculture and may even appeal to those who love folky jams on acoustic instruments not often heard together but it's a little too tame and stripped down to be essential. Reminds me of some of Leo Kottke's American primitivism guitar strumming. It's an interesting blast from the past but not as mind blowing as some make it out to be.