Walter Smetak & Conjunto de Microton - Interregno (2021/1980)

A big influence on the tropicália of Caetano Veloso, Tom Zé and Gilberto Gil; Swiss-Brazilian artist Walter Smetak is subject to reissue of his fascinating 2nd album, recorded and released in 1980 when the artist was in his late ‘60s Accompanied by a band of microtonal guitars, aka Conjunto De Microtons, Smetak used ‘Interregno’ to move his musical ideas deeper into the strange tuning systems found on his seminal self-titled debut in 1974. Picking up where ’Smetak’ left off, he effectively positions himself like Brazil’s answer to Derek Bailey, getting right inside and messing with his chosen forms in an holistic, nose-to-tail style that he’d pursued since the ‘60s/‘70s, and which would play a pivotal role influencing the expressive freedoms and glorious wonders of the tropicália movement. Guided by a personal mythology and religious-esoetric weltanschauung, the results speak clearly to a singular mind and conception of style, sounding uncannily like tropicália’s tropes are in the process of melting into air, unravelling and vaporising its mix of tradition and futurism into post-body, metaphysical forms with a visionary approach most obvious in the album’s longest work, the 12 minutes of twangs and whistles ‘Plágio,’ the pineal pinch of ‘Trifles,’ and coterie of instruments resembling avant-naturalistic, animal-like forms on ‘Ofício’ or the breezy ephemera of ‘Convite.’ A must check for fans of everyone from Annea Lockwood to Derek Bailey and Tom Zé!