O ceu e velho ha muito tempo

Brazilian musician and singer Lucas Santtana releases his seventh album, ‘O céu é velho há muito tempo’, on French label Nø Førmat! It is the follow up to 2017’s ‘Modo Avião’, an album (whose title translates as ‘airplane mode’) which probed ideas about the human experience and identity in an age of capitalism, consumerism, and 24-7 digital connectivity.

The world is living through dark times- the far right and its reactionary ideas are gaining ground everywhere, and Brazil hasn’t been spared either. A militia government has come to power in the country by dubious means, then proceeding to obstruct human rights by way of violence and censorship.

Having made a name for himself with a string of richly inventive, poly-cultural albums using nods to Brazilian cornerstones like Tropicalia and Bossa Nova with elements of everything from electronica to hip hop, for ‘O Céu É Velho Há Muito Tempo’, Santtana pares back his palette to little more than the sound of his own voice and a guitar. The album unflinchingly zeroes in on the parlous machinery dictating the political, social, and cultural balance of his own country. “We’re living in a time in which everybody is talking loud,” he observes; “I thought the time had come to whisper into people’s ears”.