Quiet conversation between two acoustic guitars, with much discretion and a sort of feeling of “saudade”.
Fabiano do Nascimento and Shin Sasakubo went to the studio four days after their gig in Japan and recorded Harmônicos for three days. Working face-to-face throughout the session resulted in this collaborative album. Although this attitude might affect its atmosphere not a bit, the album brings a wonderful and relaxing harmony between the two by controlling their originality.
Fabiano is a Brazilian guitarist born in Rio de Janeiro. But he moved to LA twenty years ago, and the city has been his activity base ever since. Though his music is deeply rooted in tradition, by employing elements of jazz, ambient, and electronica, he has played with Sam Gendel, Mia Doi Todd, Daniel Santiago, and such. On the other, Sasakubo is a guitarist from Chichibu, Saitama Pref. He is from classical music and has been exposed to the folclore of South America since childhood with experience of staying in a farm village in Peru for several years. Currently based out of Chichibu, he has collaborated with such artists as Sam Gendel, Dai Fujikura, Noel Akchote, Antonio Loureiro, Joana Queiroz, and Marucoporoporo from multiple nationalities and genres.
Harmônicos includes pieces adopted from “Ykytu” of Fabiano’s album Ykytu (2021) and “Catharsis” of Sasakubo Shin and Gabriel Bruce’s album Catharsis (2024) for the duo. Convincing adaptations of Milton Nascimento’s “Cantiga do Caicó” and Egberto Gismonti’s “Água e Vinho” are also included. The conversation between two acoustic guitars is quiet but with much discretion and a sort of feeling of “saudade”. Two, who have identified roots of their own have been on journeys of searching for musical identities of their own in better meaning. That’s why the harmony weaved by two guitars is so mysterious and melancholic that I am inclined to submerge myself in it forever.
