The reissue of the rare album A Viagem Das Horas by José Mauro will be available on May 28th, 2021 through Far Out Recordings.
Recorded in 1970 at Odeon studios in Rio de Janeiro: José Mauro’s A Viagem Das Horas wasn’t released until six years later, when label owner and producer Roberto Quartin licensed the tracks to fellow Brazilian label Tapecar. A Viagem Das Horas will be released with three never before heard tracks, “Rua Dois”, “Moenda” and “Variação Sobre Um Antigo Tema”, as Mauro and Quartin had originally intended.
“Finding our place in a country under a brutal dictatorship, and not believing in either civil war or fascism, we were part of a generation in transit, searching for another option,” said José songwriting partner Ana Maria Bahiana.
José Mauro and Ana Maria Bahiana combined their shared interest in candomblé with MPB (popular Brazilian music), psychedelic folk and orchestral music.
Many of the musicians who played with José Mauro would go on to become some of Brazil’s most important and prolific, including Wilson Das Neves, Dom Salvador, and Ivan ‘Mamao’ Conti, and their talent in those early days is evident throughout A Viagem Das Horas.
For years it was believed that José Mauro was dead. Rumors on blogs and comment sections circulated that the mysterious Brazilian genius had either been killed in a road accident, or been ‘disappeared’ by Brazil’s military junta in the 1970s. But following Far Out’s 2016 reissue of José Mauro’s debut album Obnoxius, the label heard word that José Mauro is in fact alive and well, living a quiet life on the outskirts of Rio.
“My body pushed me away from music, health became a stumbling block for me. If I had the strength to carry on with composing, I would have… always focused on achieving a sense of beauty, a sense of wonder,” said José Mauro.
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central