Pietá prepares his first meeting with Mexico

“I have a secret that I don’t know how to tell / but I’m going to sing to tell it / I’ve loved you for so long / that it was time to fall in love.”

“I carry the guitar next to my heart / although I wish it were your body. / The melody says that loving is good / and my chest says the same.”

It is the Spanish translation of the song “Perfume de Araçá” performed by the Brazilian band Pietá in the marvelous voice of Juliana Linhares, while she sings when she smiles and squints, as if she were trying to look at the corner from which her song emanates; when sometimes it seems that he recites more than sings and sometimes he sings more than he recites.

The Pietá band, in addition to Juliana, is made up of multi-instrumentalists Rafael Lorga and Frederico Demarca, who, by the way, founded the group around 2011, when the three were studying theater professionally. It is for this reason that the group displays on stage a deep-rooted theatricality and a show that invites the public to connect the mind with the body, to move.

It is pleasant to listen to the band’s powerful and colorful melodies, such as “Festejo e fé” or “Mar de sognos”, with a very Brazilian identity that can be heard through instruments that, from different origins, have taken root throughout America and They have found a new possibility of identity through the cultures of the region, among them the cajon, percussion, flute, and guitar, which do both bossa nova and jazz and pair perfectly with Juliana’s powerful voice.

Pietá is one of the groups that are part of the Brazilian delegation as Guest Country of Honor in the 52nd edition of the Cervantino International Festival (FIC) – to be held from October 11 to 27 – along with Oaxaca as Guest State, and in whose edition, without a doubt, the music will be one of the highlights.

Music of the Amazon

“We are a group that brings together rhythms that range from the roots of Brazil to the contemporary. That’s why we use the most traditional instruments to beats. At Cervantino we are going to present a selection from our entire discography, but with a special emphasis on our new album, Nasci no Brasil. For him we had a lot of influence from the music of the Amazon and other regions of the northeast of the country. We want to show the great relevance that the Brazilian identity has through its rhythms,” Julianna shares in an interview with this newspaper together with Rafael Lorga.

“Art is a path to expansion. Life tends to be hard, cold sometimes. But art allows us to expand beyond those limits, both physically and mentally; It allows us to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, it makes us grow as people. That’s why the music we make has no intention of being fast or ephemeral, we have not allowed it to be swallowed up by the market. Instead, we seek a real, human and musical connection with the public, to be able to disconnect from the world a little and live in the present, which is something so rare today.”

It will be the first time that Pietá performs in our country, a dream come true, Rafael acknowledges. “A few years ago we tried to present ourselves in Mexico, but we couldn’t get anything done. Now we are very excited about this opportunity”, to which Julianna comments: “there is a lot to know about Mexico, the gastronomy, the ancestral culture. I have wanted to know your country for a long time. In addition to offering the concert, we want to know a little. We know that it is such a large country that it is difficult to explore all its facets, but the simple fact of having contact with its diversity, its crafts and its culture excites us very much.”

Desire and need in music are constant tensions. The market is an undeniable attraction, which invites us to standardize rhythms to fit into trends. To do this, resisting is more than an obligation, but a conviction. How to achieve a balance between what you want and what you need when creating music? That is what the interviewees are asked. Rafael answers:

“When I stop to think about what it means to live off of culture, the first thing I resolve is that in this profession, planning for the long term makes us think that it is difficult to live off of culture in a country like Brazil. But when we go on stage and do our thing, the art itself, the music, but above all the response from the public makes us think that it is possible to sustain a life living from what we like, from our art.”

Pietá will be presented on Friday, October 25 at 12:00 p.m. on the stage set up in the Exhacienda de San Gabriel de Barrera, in the capital of Guanajuato. But one day before and one day after, the Brazilian band will offer two concerts in the neighboring cities of León and Irapuato.

Musical must-sees by Cervantino

Just like Pietá, the delegation of Brazil, Guest of Honor country, will bring to the ears of the FIC audience one of the most relevant sopranos of that nation, Rossana Lamosa, who will offer the recital “Alma brasileira” as a tribute to the greatest composers of his nation.

Pietá Recommendation:

“Perfume of Araçá”

Pieta

Other notable musical performances:

Filipe Catto — Brazil

Beauties are things illuminated from within

• Thursday, October 13, 11:00 p.m.

The Late Night

Great South—Mexico

• Saturday, October 26, 11:00 p.m.

The Late Night

Monsieur Periné—Colombia