South American music and culture magazine

Tulipa Ruiz returned to London in December 2011 for the second time, this time bringing a band featuring her father Luiz Chagas on guitar and brother Gustavo Ruiz on bass. Sounds and Colours had the opportunity to meet up with Tulipa at the gig, where she played to an enamoured audience at Cargo. Watch Tulipa in action and hear her thoughts below: Continue Reading

Carnival season is almost upon South America, but don’t worry – you haven’t left it too late to join the party. See below for last-minute cheap rates on hotels and hostels for four hot destinations… Continue Reading

Jorge Continentino describes himself as a saxophonist and flutist, but he regularly draws on his piano and guitar-playing skills when he’s writing original music. Jorge got an early start, leaving his hometown of Rio de Janeiro at just eighteen years of age to tour and record with some of the biggest names in Brazilian popular music, like Marisa Monte and Milton Nascimento. His nearly fifteen-years as a musician in Brazil laid the groundwork for a successful career now based in New York City, where Jorge blends traditional forró music from Northeastern Brazil with jazz, rock and folk in one-of-a-kind compositions. One of his groups, Forró in the Dark, has toured North America and Europe but is most at home presiding over the late night Brazilian parties every Wednesday at Nublu in New York’s East Village. The group also appears on the Red Hot + Rio 2 album. In addition to Forró in the Dark, Jorge is involved with numerous cutting-edge projects and collaborations that he described in our interview below. Continue Reading

A great mixtape of new music for you today courtesy of our good friends at the SoundGoods blog (which is well worth checking out if you’re not already familiar). This is a 9-track mixtape highlighting some of the interesting ways in which Tecno Brega is fusing with new styles. Here Tecno Brega and Eletromelody are fused with Axé (which is itself a mix of samba reggae, ijexá and frevo) for a new style that is being called Axé Melody. Continue Reading

The Crying Forest is a documentary about Ze Claudio Ribeiro da Silva, an Amazon rainforest activist, and his wife, who were gunned down in the Brazilian Amazon on May 24th 2011. Continue Reading

Day three was all about metal, with Slipknot, Metallica and Motorhead on the main stage, and the likes of Sepultura (Brazil’s biggest ever metal band!), Korzus and Angra on the Palco Sunset stage. However, our money as best act of the day was on Matanza and Rio rapper BNegão. Continue Reading

The second day at Rock In Rio had a pretty ropey bunch of headliners, Snow Patrol and Red Hot Chili Peppers anyone?, but some killer combos on the Palco Sunset stage. Mike Patton was the last man on the stage, finishing things off with his performance accompanied by Mondo Cane and Orquestra Sinfonica de Heliópolis: Continue Reading

There is something about Rock In Rio that just seems quite exciting. Maybe it’s the history because this year’s edition did not look that great on paper, or at least none of the headliners did, yet we still found ourselves getting a little excited about it. Now, unfortunately none of our team managed to get over to Rio for this one but we have got some pretty good photos and video from the event of some of our favourite performers. Continue Reading

Brazil demands the highest cost of living in all of South America. Rapid economic development over the past 10 years has seen the standard of living rise for millions of households. Brazil’s economy has grown into one of the major powerhouses of the world and in the process has created millions of jobs, raising average incomes and boosting consumer spending. The result has been a rapid rise in prices over the last couple of years and so the cost of living has risen for both tourists and Brazilians alike. Continue Reading

In the North-East of Brazil the state of Bahia is found, a vibrant and colourful region, glowing with a rich mixture of European and African influences. Baroque churches, Candomblé ceremonies, the unmistakable twang of the berimbau commanding a Capoeira roda, and the birthplace of Jorge Amado and apparently of chocolate. But the riches of Bahia are not only restricted to the cobblestone streets of places such as Olinda, or the dream-like beaches of its coconut-laden coast. There is also much to be explored away from the land. Jorge Amado may have written of a “Mar Morto”, but the sea surrounding Bahia is anything but dead. Continue Reading

It’s been more than 10 years now since Patrick Laplan left Los Hermanos, but many people still refer to him as their bass player. It’s understandable: after he left, the band achieved the critic’s approval and a phenomenon that we hadn’t seen since in Brazil since Legião Urbana in the 80s, with its members getting a messianic status. Continue Reading

Pernambuco is one of the musical epicentres of Brazil, full of infectious rhythms and traditions such as caboclinho, forró, candomblé and baião. Since the emergence of Mangue Bit in the early 90s this has been even more the case, with that particular genre’s fusing of rap and funk with maracatu and Afro-Brazilian religions inspiring new generations to create music, with artists like Otto, DJ Dolores, Alessandra Leão and Nação Zumbi currently producing some of the finest music in Brazil. With Musica da Massa! New Sounds of Pernambuco we decided to showcase some of freshest sounds of Pernambuco with a collection of 16 tracks released over the last two years. Continue Reading