"Obviously" Streams April 1st
I don't make Brazilian music, as much as I'd like to able to. I'm deeply inspired by it, but after living in several countries, I'm resigned to being some sort of rootless cosmopolitan.
"Obviously" is the first fruit of a more than decade-long friendship with Marcos Kuzka Cunha. Marcos came to stay in NYC back then and we hit it off immediately. Well, Marcos hits it off with everybody as he's sort of a one-man carnival. Constantly studying, travelling, and playing, Marcos not only composes great film soundtracks, he's not a bad director himself. Most of our work has been with my little tunes. I typically send him vocals, guitars, and loops, and he does the rest, chopping my stuff up, then adding all sorts of strange sounds and parts from keyboards, basses, cavaquinhos, and more. As we both have limited attention spans, everything counts in a Kuzka arrangement and it all dazzles.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention other musical brothers, Marco Raaphorst, for one, a very accomplished Dutch guitarist, whom I had the pleasure of listening to for years as a part of MAM, before connecting in person, only to discover we share fathers with Bach obsessions, ages, and a love for Scritti Politti.
I've worked with Gil Oliveira since we met as we both moved to the city about 15 years back. Since then, we've recorded in a variety of ways and I find his playing completely enchanting. I can never predict how he'll approach something and I'm always pleasantly surprised.
Emilia Cataldo records as Nehedar when she's not singing with me. We've become very close over the years. She makes my songs much better than they would be without her.
This is my fourth work with Martin Scian, and he's another secret weapon- a world-class mixing engineer hiding out in Patagonia. Don't tell anyone.
And finally, through the magic of social media, we can always be in touch from people from other dimensions. Karin Kerkmann is one of those extraterrestrials one meets once in a lifetime, if so lucky. After more than 30 years, it was so nice to connect with her and her art on this project.
As we might translate from Japanese, please enjoy my humble music.
Bob Gaulke
March 15, 2022
"Obviously" streams on all platforms starting April 1st, 2022.