Hermes Aquino – Eu Quero Ser Teu Rei
(Desencontro De Primavera, 1977)
Aquino spent eight years and his wife’s inheritance on L’Arca Amarela (the Yellow Ark), a studio which he built in the misty forest surrounding the Iguazu Falls in Western Brazil. He was never accepted by the local shamans and two sound engineers died mysteriously during the recording of the album from which this song is taken. Despite such trauma, the music is irresistibly joyful: the rhythm a squelchy funk dragged from the swamp and made to join the conga line; a dozen chattering melodies circle and hover through the canopy. A snake swallows a bird that is eating a beetle. Aquino goes back into the ark. His wife brushes his hair and he writes another song.
