Ramiro Musotto
Ramiro Musotto is one of the most innovative berimbau players in the world. A lifelong student of musical styles, Musotto has kept the pulse alive for Latin American folk music, carnival samba, Brazilian pop, and, as a young man, behind a drum kit for a punk band. Born in Argentina, he moved to Brazil in his early 20s to perfect his technique in playing the berimbau, a single-string percussion instrument. Using the skills he honed as a percussionist for Brazilian standouts Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Marisa Monte, Sergio Mendes, and Carlinhos Brown, Musotto set out to fuse the musical origins of the region with his passion for electronica. Musotto has been called a shaman and a pioneering spirit in the current Brazilian music scene, known amongst his peers as both an accomplished electronic musician and percussionist. Venturing beyond the ethnic field recordings and electronic sequencing, Musotto also draws from a wealth of unique percussion and other organic sound samples that make his beat structure as diverse and far-reaching as the African rhythms that brought the berimbau to Brazil and finally to Musotto himself. Musotto hopes to prove that two conflicting cultural ideals can exist in harmony and benefit beyond. He calls it “a psychedelic trip throughout and into the Afro-Brazilian and South American culture; an optimistic way of interpreting the effects of technology in our everyday life and art.”
His debut 2003 release Sudaka, was a gathering between Amazon Indian chant field recordings, Afro-Brazilian Candomblé spirit rituals, the call of an Argentinean urban street vendor, and Musotto’s own urbanized electronic beats. With his second release Civilização & Barbarye (U.S. release date t.b.a.), Ramiro promises to build on his trademark sound of original and innovative music. To listen to the music of Ramiro Musotto is to hear a glimpse of the future sound of South America.