Guerra / de Paiva / Hornsby / Konradsen // Contrahouse LP

*Will be shipped after restocking in mid-September

Brazilian jazz/dance label 40% Foda's Gabriel Guerra and Lucas de Paiva, Grammy Award-winning American powerhouse SSW Bruce Hornsby, and Jenny Konradsen, one half of the Norwegian indie-folk duo Konradsen, will join the US underground in April 2024. This is a collaborative record released on the label Ulyssa.

Contains 4 unique songs that blend deep house, fusion, dub, and smooth jazz.

*Please feel free to contact us as we will send you the digital sound source free of charge.

Below is a commentary by the label.

"Welcome to CONTRAHOUSE. These four captivating and sensual feature films were created over two years and across three continents by ULYSSA Platinum members Gabriel Guerra, Lucas de Paiva, Bruce Hornsby and Jenny Konradsen. That's Bruce Hornsby, our hero ever since my stepmother stole some of his first records from a dusty CD tower.

But first and foremost, Gabriel Guerra and Lucas de Paiva run the jazz/dance label 40% Foda/Maneiríssimo, one of the greatest labels on the planet and an essential cog in Rio's underground dance scene. be. They are often used as session players by Brazilian pop stars. Across 40% Foda's 60 releases, Guerra and de Paiva have created humid, midi-driven outsider lounge, brash trance, and breakneck 808 techno under a myriad of aliases. They draw from 90s video game soundtracks, library music, mid-80s ECM jazz, deep house, and more, injecting a sense of humor and a distinctly Brazilian sense of movement. We have been proselytizing 40% Foda, Guerra and de Paiva for the past few years to anyone who has shown the slightest interest.

A few years ago, we at UHQ asked Gabriel Guerra and Lucas de Paiva to identify musicians from the Yulissaverse or adjacent to the Yulissaverse who might be able to collaborate on a project they called "ECM Records meets white label house 12." I was daydreaming about it. Bruce Hornsby is a Grammy Award-winning songwriter and pianist representing avant-Americana. Bruce Hornsby's intellectual curiosity, from his powerful '80s radio hits to his adventures in new jack swing and bluegrass, from playing jazz with Jack DeJohnette to playing the keys on the Grateful Dead's 91 tour. His deep well of talent, combined with his world-class virtuosity, positions him as a once-in-a-generation artist as far as we know. A listen to the three albums he's released since 2019 further proves our seemingly bold claim.

Both Rio members and Bruce Hornsby agreed to try our wild hair concept. Gabriel Guerra and Lucas de Paiva swapped songs with Hornsby, editing his riffs and runs into new movements and rearranging Hornsby's chords into song foundations. Something magical was permeating it. However, I had another idea. Is there a voice that can take these songs into some kind of anthemic realm?

Immediately I thought of our dear Norwegian friend Konradsen. Her mulled wine and her warm milk voice have brought us comfort for many years. She was in the middle of recording her second album, and she agreed to do the vocals. And we reworked EO Deines' poem in ULYSSA. But for now, Konradsen's take has been chopped, screwed, dubbed and pitched down to gorgeous Dada nonsense by Gabriel Guerra and Lucas de Paiva.

CONTRAHOUSE's songs pulsate, shimmer, and often ellipse. Echoes of the past meander through the mountain stream, with many branches. These songs certainly capture everything we've loved about 40% Foda. The production is creative and mysterious in every scene. These four songs are actually a loose homage to our beloved mid-4s ECM records. Think of sensual, scenic, and profound music like the Pat Metheny Group's Offramp, Oregon's Ecotopia, Egberto Guizmonti's Duas Vozes, or Jon Hassell's Power Spot. I want you to. There are also deep house white label releases and Larry Heard's masterpiece ``Sceneries Not Songs Vol.1980''. However, ``CONTRAHOUSE'' is itself a mysterious biosphere.

Jellyfish sounds like a living room bathed in blue light at 3am. You tossed and turned for an hour and finally decided to get out of bed. Gabriel Guerra and Lucas de Paiva create the sound of a feverish dream shattered. Hornsby's spidery piano keys are like jellyfish darting around in your field of vision. While everyone else in the world is dreaming, you are suddenly given a secret superpower. The American Bottoms are a real place, a wide, flat valley surrounded by rolling hills in southern Indiana, between the communities of Bloomington and Bloomfield. Somewhere there was a now-defunct orchard that grew American persimmons, and we spent two days during college summer vacation tending to the orchard while riding John Deere Gators over the hilly terrain. I spent my time as a wild ramdrunk jackal running around. And although none of these musicians have ever been to American Bottoms, the splendor and bliss of those green hills during the dog days of Southern Indiana summer can be felt in the songs.

Brooklyn artist Jenny J. Lee kindly provided the artwork for this album. This work depicts seemingly ordinary everyday items such as Levi's, lemons, monkey skulls, and driving gloves in fibrous and tactile ways, and shows that everything in this world is mysterious and has big-time sensuality. It reminds me that I am there. Just like the music contained within.

CONTRAHOUSE is a liminal space. And CONTRAHOUSE is now your home. " 

Labels and other worksplease use this form. ///Click here to see more ULYSSA releases available at Tobira. 

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Ask us for digital files. 12" black vinyl.

tracklist:

1. Big Time Sensuality 2 09:55
2. Jellyfish 10:14
3. American Bottoms 07:31
4. Streetcorn 08:22

Text excerpt by ULYSSA:

"Welcome to CONTRAHOUSE. These four beguiling and voluptuous longform compositions were created across three continents over the course of two years by ULYSSA Platinum-carrying members Gabriel Guerra, Lucas de Paiva, Bruce Hornsby and Jenny Konradsen. Yes, THAT Bruce Hornsby, a hero of ours since middle school when we swiped copies of his first few records from our step-mom's dusty CD tower.

[...]

The songs on CONTRAHOUSE are pulsing, twinkling and often elliptical. It's novo-hauntology music — echoes of the past meandering down mountain streams, offshoots abound. These songs certainly capture all we've loved about 40% Foda but they also take those things and pull at them like so much taffy. Inventive and mystifying maneuvers at every turn. The four songs do in fact pay a loose homage to some mid-1980s ECM Records we cherish. Think, perhaps, of the sensual, airbrushed and profound music of Pat Metheny Group's Offramp, Oregon's Ecotopia; Egberto Gizmonti's Duas Vozes, or perhaps John Hassel's Power Spot. And it does in fact nod to deep house white label releases and Larry Heard's seminal work Sceneries Not Songs Vol. 1. But CONTRAHOUSE is its own curious biosphere ."

Artist : Guerra / de Paiva / Hornsby / Konradsen

Label: ULYSSA

CAT No.: ULY024