TrocaBrahma 07 is a festival to celebrate the spirit of Brasil this summer with exclusive collaborations between established and emerging UK and Brasilian music talent including Bonde do Role & Radioclit/Amanda Blank, Gruff Rhys & Tony Da Gatorra, Fourtet & Open Field Church and Optimo & Os Mutantes. In May the UK acts visited Brasil to meet and collaborate with the artists in Brasil and this month they will meet again in the UK for events in London, Liverpool and Glasgow from July 26-29. Neil Mowat, one of the co-programmers told us some more about the event.

We’ve also got three pairs of tickets up for grabs so look out for that at the end of the interview.

What’s the whole idea behind TrocaBrahma?

TrocaBrahma is about offering different opportunities and new perspectives for both the audience and the artists involved. Brahma wanted to present a genuine alternative to the usual summer festival provision that would allow the artist and audience to have a bit of fun and produce something entirley new.

How did the artists choose who to collaborate with?

Gruff Rhys knew all about Tony Da Gatorra’s work and was very keen to work with him, this was also the case with Fourtet and Open Field Church, and Bonde Do Role with Radioclit and Amanda Blank. King Creosote wasn’t previously aware of Romulo Froes’ work but was really enthusiastic about how they could work together after listening to a number of different Brazilian artists. Optimo’s JD Twitch is a long time admirer of Os Mutantes and had been in touch with them previously, so we just facilitated a discussion between them. With Ben Westbeech and Tita Lima, Gilles Peterson advised us that he thought these artists would work well together, we approached them, and they agreed.

The artists have all now met up and worked together in Brazil. How did it go?

Nobody really knew what to expect as it was a new experience for everyone involved. It turned out brilliantly, a really intense week in Sao Paulo. All of the artists got straight into working together and developing new material for shows we had organised at the end of week. So a great mix of work and socialising for 6 or 7 days (which the Brazilians are exceptionally good at). Most of the artists contributed to blogs while we were there and there is video and audio from the week up on the blog site at trocabrahma.net.

What parts of the lineup are you most excited about?

It’s difficult to single out any part of the programme as all of the collaborations have turned out so well. All of the artists are doing full live sets as well as the new material so every night is packed with exceptional shows. However, I can’t wait to see incredibly rare performances by Os Mutantes, and the collaborations between Gruff Rhys and Tony Da Gattora, and King Creosote and Romulo Froes are going to be amazing.

Will this be a regular event?

Yes this is the second year this has happened and everybody has been so positive about it that we’re sure we’ll be doing it over the years ahead.

TrocaBrahma 07 runs through London, Liverpool and Glasgow from July
26-29. We have three pairs of tickets to the TrocaBrahma gig of your choice to give away: just mail info@trocabrahma.com with your choice of gig and choice of city – plus ‘Diskant Comp’ in the subject header – and the first three entrants will receive free tickets. For more info on this year’s event and artists, see www.trocabrahma.com.

Posted: 07|2|07 at 3:08 pm. Filed under: events.
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