released May 12, 2021

Born and raised in Belo Horizonte, Douglas Scalioni breathed from the airs that hover under the Serra do Curral, the same one that inspired important musical movements in Belo Horizonte, and expanded in several directions. His musical journey and the way of seeing the art of creation were shaped by dualities; from the academic refinement of a jazz language, arising from his passage through the music school at UFMG, to the psychedelic and experimental sound of the sixteenth counter-culture, from the Renaissance erudition to the forefront of modern electroacoustic music, emotion and the exact.

Although we listened to hundreds of records together - mainly Pink Floyd, Beatles and Tropicalistas - one of the most striking memories is from the day I met him. We shared a few beers while we spent the night talking about things we liked, ranging from Frank Zappa to the General Theory of Relativity, and my most vivid recollection is of how he spoke of these subjects with passion and mastery. This characteristic is directly proportional to the way he studies and loves the music he makes or listens to - each aesthetic, harmonic and social element is an important part for him. His art does not live only from the past, and his references are also very current. His creative and vibrant personality made him a striking figure inthe midst of the intense and fertile musical movement in Belo Horizonte, collaborating and exchanging experiences with exponents of the scene. “Right people are open people”, he used to say, to paraphrase Erasmo Carlos.

I could say that Douglas is a bit of a Zappa, has something of Clube da Esquina, is influenced by Arthur Verocai, but in reality he does not belong to the labels. He is a bit of poetry, cinema, mathematics, visual arts, physics and music. His unique sensitivity for absorbing references and translating into his own artistic language surpasses any convenient label.

Recorded and produced in December 2018 by Leonardo Marques (Ilha do Corvo) and with the participation of several former colleagues from the music school at UFMG, the album narrates his first and only year of college; a sound portrait of a particular 2016.

“Como queremos demonstrar’ is an expression of mathematics, but it also suits the critical and argumentative intention, sometimes satirical, that Douglas has with his work in relation to music and academia. Mathematics is present in his sense of musical aesthetics and especially in his creative process: “solving cadences seems to me to be solving equations, for example”.

MORE THAN THAT, WRITING MUSIC, FOR HIM, IS TO TEST HIS CONJECTURES AND DEMONSTRATE HIS THEOREMS.

“But the record is not about mathematics. It’s about music. And it’s about looking for identity in the things we do. It’s about what I felt in 2016 and what lives in me today. About charging yourself too much and taking yourself too seriously.”.

FROM SAMBA TO JAZZ, from experimentalism to Baroque from Minas Gerais, the album can sound bold with its heavy arrangements on themes that are difficult not to go around singing. Each song represents a reminder of his single year in music college. The entrance exam in ‘auditório’; urgent rehearsals in room ‘3003’; campus walks in “tema principal”; missing classes with ‘UFMG de noite’ and the dropping out of college in ‘Saideira’, in the middle of the political scenario of the country with classrooms occupied by students.

With six tracks, Douglas is accompanied by a new generation of musicians, representing an effervescent and important independent scene in Belo Horizonte - the result is the enthusiasm that overflows in the recordings.


Auditório

Douglas Scalioni: guitar, guitar, mandolin, doors
Nathan Morals: bass
Estevan Barbosa: drums
Lucca Noacco: voices
Lucas Bortolucci: tenor sax
Jackson Ganga: sax alto
Lucas Nascimento: trumpet
Marlon Rissatto: trombone

3003

Douglas Scalioni: guitar, guitar
Nathan Morals: bass
Estevan Barbosa: drums and percussions
Lucca Noacco: keyboards
Lucas Bortolucci: tenor sax
Jackson Ganga: alto sax
Lucas Nascimento: trumpet
Marlon Rissatto: trombone

Tema Principal

Douglas Scalioni: acoustic guitar, piano, steps
Estevan Barbosa: drums and percussions
Marlon Rissatto: trombone

UFMG de Noite

Douglas Scalioni: guitar, guitar, banjo, lead voice
Nathan Morals: bass
Estevan Barbosa: battery:
Lucca Noacco: piano, backing vocals
Lucas Bortolucci: tenor sax
Jackson Ganga: alto sax

Saideira

Douglas Scalioni: guitar, guitar, dish
Nathan Morais: low
Estevan Barbosa: drums and percussion
Lucca Noacco: voices

Fim

Douglas Scalioni, Estevan Barbosa, Nathan Morais, Leonardo Marques

Lucas Bortolucci: tenor sax
Jackson Ganga : alto sax

Photo and cover: Hugo Bachiega