A FAMILY AFFAIR

The sensuous-voiced Brazilian song siren Bebel Gilberto returns with her much-anticipated eighth album, João. The eleven-track recording, which will be released by the [PIAS] Recordings on 25 August, is a heartfelt homage to her late father, the iconic singer/songwriter João Gilberto, who was one of bossa nova music’s prime architects. 

Bebel, who rose to fame by updating the bossa nova sound by fusing it with elements of electronica on her groundbreaking 2000 album Tanto Tempo, has studiously avoided recording songs associated with her father until now, preferring to forge her own path. Now, though, four years after his death, she feels able to reconnect with him via his music. 

“It’s the right time for me to do this,” she said recently. “I’m finally covering my father’s songs, showing the music that really impacted on me. I tried to avoid the obvious. It’s a way of looking into his music without picking the usual suspects, as it were.”

The album features Bebel’s gorgeous renditions of material written by or indelibly associated with her father, including gorgeous renditions of bossa nova classics such as ‘Ela E Carioca,’ ‘Desafinado’ and ‘O Pato.’ The deeply personal project also reunites New York-born Gilberto – whose mother was the Brazilian singer Miúcha –  with the noted American producer Thomas Bartlett, who helmed her last album, 2020’s Agora.  “Thomas is incredible,” enthuses Gilberto. “He’s a wonderful collaborator, but also a very good friend of mine. He knows how my head works.” 

João is available from [PIAS] Recordings on 25 August. A taster from the album, the single ‘Adeus América’ is out now, available to download or stream

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