During the first COVID outbreak and subsequent lockdown many individuals experienced great hardship, isolation and of course sickness and death. For musicians not being able to perform and earn money during this period was also devastating and for some career ending.

I was fortunate enough to continue my employment albeit in a reduced capacity but I consider myself to be one of the fortunate ones who had some form of income. Personally, the period of lockdown was a great meditative and contemplative experience; a chance to re-connect with family; appreciate simple things; practice, perform, solidify ideas and record.

During this time I connected with many musicians from all over the world and live-streamed new material almost weekly. I am extremely privileged to have connected both on an artistic level and personally with the brilliant Brazilian guitarist and composer George Christian.

I first came into contact with George’s material in early 2020 and instantly gravitated to his raw, honest and unrelenting delivery and the great freedom with which he played. George was also a prolific artist, dedicated to his craft and was regularly releasing his own material. His catalogue amassing to over 30 releases. I would await for his next release and was always stunned and pleasantly surprised with the result.

These five recordings on this release were all improvised and represent a like-minded cohesion of ideas, whether it be sonically, spiritually or structurally. These pieces came together naturally with great ease and represent a time capsule - a representation of the 2020 Pandemic, where months of lockdown led some people down a toxic rabbit hole of misinformation, hatred and conspiracy theories, while others whinged relentlessly about being confined to their homes, and some connected with kindred spirits on opposite ends of the globe like George Christian and myself.

The Sun will Rise Again for me is a mediation on impermanence and the importance of not grasping onto possessions, people, feelings, situations and circumstances. Several days locked into a dark fog of darkness can change any day with a golden ray of sunshine, a walk in nature and an appreciation of what we have.

TMFA
June, 2022


O Sol Nascerá Novamente is one of those works I’m really amazed at how much balanced it is in the contributions that I made with Michael Sill (The Man From Atlantis). The beauty of these tracks come out from the spontaneity as much as the intriguing way our inner ear of harmonic and contrapuntal constructions can be intriguing enough. Somehow, there’s no distance between our cultural backgrounds, geographical distance (I’m from South America, Michael’s from Oceania) and pursuits when it comes to what we aim to achieve musically, even though our sonic identities are pretty clear.

“Viksepa” comes like a meditation on fire. Spiritual as much as fierce. A salute to Kali. Not without shades from Sonny Sharrock and Jimi Hendrix.

“Limite Cruzado” is an acoustic piece that is a plea of peace, but with several confessions to be made. TMFA’s guitar comes in a real dialog with the solitude that’s primarily communicated by my guitar.

“Madrugada Desacordada” is a journey from introversion, with some serious steps and decisions to be taken, to hallucinatory immersion, when travelling from acoustic to electric textures. I’ve recorded during dawn originally, having hard time to sleep. TMFA’s guitar brings not only truly inspiring melodic responses, also increases the sense of madness and tension communicated by the piece. If I enter with a more echoing percussive approach, TMFA gets the melodies into other realms of sonic textures in an epic journey.

“Lisérgica Sorte” is the most liquified creatively playing, while coming back to the electric sound. It can be cathartic enough to feel sense of new kinds of motion, from its calmer pace to the spacey textures, but not without a sense of contrasts of attitudes and sonic endeavors.

The closing track “The Sun Will Also Rise” is Michael’s magnificent plea of spiritual survival. The sun’s within. Quoting Parliament’s “Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow”: “The Kingdom of Heaven is within!”. It’s the only real song out of a majority of instrumentals, but a very important one.

There’s a sense of danger as much as adventures in every track. Our brand of psychedelia matures into something spiritual and transcending, which was a real urge due to these crazy times of uncertainty thanks to the pandemic. I truly hope that this album finds listeners that can be intelligent and adventurous enough to free their own minds while listening to us – as well as getting rid of the malicious immediatism of the social networks. Maybe O Sol Nascerá Novamente can give keys to new ascensions.

George Christian
June, 2022.