Starting Point: Vinyl LP

Pre-Order Item. Release Date Subject to Change.
Label: Far Out Recordings
Release Date: 17th February

Consider that sweet spot that sits between mad wig-out jams and melodic jazz funk fusion you can hang your coat on hit with another Brazilian banger from Far Out Recordings. The long lost 1975 debut album from a band consisting of the white hot players who backed the great Hermeto Pascoal.

In 1975, under the oppressive air of military dictatorship in Brazil, brothers Lelo and Z Eduardo Nazario invited bassist Zeca Assumpcao to join their musical experiments in a basement under Sao Paulo's Teodoro Sampaio Street - As teenagers, the trio had already been playing together in Hermeto Pascoal's Grupo, alongside guitarist Toninho Horta and saxophonist Nivaldo Ornelas, and it was while working together under Hermeto's direction that the Paulista rhythm section (as they were then known) began to realise their own potential.
With many nightclubs and venues closed in the mid-70s and government censors dictating the output of radio, TV and art galleries, many Brazilian artists fled during the years of dictatorship. But underground, Grupo Um were fusing avant garde ideals with contemporary jazz and Afro Brazilian rhythm; making phenomenally free and expressive music - in stark contrast to the sterile, conservative conditions being imposed above ground.
Just like Hermeto Pascoal's Viajando Com O Som from the following year, Starting Point was recorded over two days at Vice- Versa Studios, by revered engineer Renato Viola. The studio was one of the best in Sao Paulo and musicians communicated with engineers through cameras and a monitor, allowing the group complete immersion in the process. They also made use of the studio's hemispherical tiled room, which served as an acoustic reverberation chamber.