Babe, Terror — Pescadou Gualapagouse

Babe, Terror, the alter ego of Brazilian producer/composer Claudio Katz Szynkier, has its roots firmly set in the alternative worlds of woozy electronica, ambient, sampling, jazz even noise-rock. His work to date delivers an enthralling journey through a sonic underground doused in intricacy, layering and deep complexity. And it is this trusted electronic aesthetic that forms the basis of Pescadou Gualapagouse, the Brazilian artist’s latest Babe, Terror release which marks a shift to the realms of modern classical and free jazz

Having worked in electronic production for the best part of twenty years now, Szynkier released his first self-titled EP in 2008 and was soon rubbing shoulders with heavyweights including Four Tet, who reworked the title track of his Summertime Our League EP, and Daniel Avery. The Brazilian has since gone on to produce a series of well-received albums including 2020’s Horizogon, an “experiment in multi-orchestras, strangely tainted instrumentations, a puzzle piece of electro symphonic jazz” and one of the Guardian’s global albums of the year; and last year’s Teghnojoyg, in which he takes dance music into another dimension. Pescadou Gualapagouse is the third element of this musical triptych. Throughout all his compositions, Szynkier has sought to align disparate musical worlds and this time it is the turn of the more traditional: classical and jazz.

Commissioned by Longform, who has released work by the likes of Anqi Liu, Valerio Cosi and jazz master Wadada Leo Smith, Pescadou Gualapagouse is structured (unsurprisingly) as one long-form piece - one landscape that lets the instruments of the orchestra fuse with jazz underscored throughout by an analogue approach to looping.

The piece is inspired by two things: his travels around his home city of Sao Paolo and Marcel Pagnol’s Marseille Trilogy, and while it's intended to be listened to in one sitting, Pescadou Gualapagouse comprises six parts - continuity maintained by way of motifs and looping notations. “Marius na Orla Natal” named after the port town in North East Brazil opens with violins and electronic arpeggios, before completely surrendering to the traditional as violins build and woodwind, brass and the rest of the orchestra infiltrate proceedings. This ‘movement’, for want of a better word, is underscored by several replicated motifs that persist until the entrance of the piano at which point harmony surrenders to discordance. “Pitalugue Agua Branca” sees more dominant yet melancholic violin, punctuated by occasional Stravinsky-esque stabbing strings or piano as both instruments sit at musical odds only occasionally meeting in the middle. And then from nowhere - bass, sax; as the two genres collide. “Marius na Bahia das Lontras” is an interlude of piano, flute and violin arpeggios before “Fanny de Mongagua 1990” ushers in a change of pace. Woodwind and tuba come to the fore before beseeching violins and accompanying piano soundtrack our protagonist’s journey. Before long, we arrive at the final chapter “Malaisie do Mar Nepal”, which perpetuates the established musical themes as each component comes back into the fold - dense bass, orchestra, sax, piano. Classical to jazz and back again. Perfect.