Ateu Psicodélico
| Ateu Psicodélico | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 9, 2022 | |||
| Recorded | Second semester of 2022 | |||
| Studio | Robertinho de Recife studios in Rio de Janeiro | |||
| Length | 51:00 | |||
| Label | Avôhai Music / Discobertas | |||
| Producer | Robertinho de Recife | |||
| Zé Ramalho chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Ateu Psicodélico | ||||
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Ateu Psicodélico is the twentieth studio album by Brazilian singer-songwriter Zé Ramalho, released on 9 September 2022 via Avôhai Music in partnership with Discobertas. It's his first release of all-new material since Sinais dos Tempos (2012) and features guest performances by Waldonys, Andreas Kisser and Robertinho do Recife, the latter also acting as the album producer.
Context, production and recording
[edit]"All music performed in Brazil is repetitive. There's nothing special about any of them. Romantic, every day themes or light digressions on politics or isolated cases are repetitive in almost every situation. Like Guilherme Arantes recently said: 'There's no more delirium in Brazilian music.' And I've been providing deliriums since album one. On the song Vila do Sossego, from first album, there's the sentence: 'And in the deliriums, to fear my grasshoppers'... With this I don't want to de-value those who don't deliriate when writing music. But it's a trigger that, when pulled, provokes reactions on whoever listens and hears deliriant songs. I repeat: I'm not criticizing, nor taking down any musical form of Brazilian music, but I'm referring to the passive behavior of all which are written."
Zé Ramalho hadn't released any album of all-new material since 2012's Sinais dos Tempos.[2][3][4] In the meantime, he re-organized his backing band and went through a couple of heart surgeries which imposed some recovering time.[5] During two years of no live performances due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ramalho revisited old notes and recordings with music ideas to create the new material.[6] 13 songs were originally planned,[6] but in the end 12 made it to the final cut, created in a two-month period of 2021.[5] Ramalho, who wrote everything alone, defined the album as "100% by me, 100% new and 100% current".[2]
The name of the album was taken off a text published on social media[5] by Arnaldo Baptista (Os Mutantes) on Ramalho's own work.[4][6] The text is reproduced on the back cover of the album[2][5] and was originally posted a few months before the release.[7]
The album was recorded at its producer Robertinho de Recife's studios in Rio de Janeiro,[2][3] from April to June 2022.[8]
Release
[edit]The album was released on 9 September 2022 via Ramalho's own label, Avôhai Music, in partnership with Marcelo Fróes's label Discobertas.[1][3][8] It was promoted by the single "As Onze Palavras", released on 19 August of the same year.[9]
Critical reception
[edit]| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| G1 |  [8] |
On his blog on G1, Mauro Ferreira said that the first single, "As Onze Palavras", "honors the artist's past" and "serves the habitual banquet of mystical signs".[9] Then, in his review of the whole album, he said Zé Ramalho "presents an already anthological album which evolves in high level from the first track to its last, serving a banquet of mystical signs" and that Ateu Psicodélico "is an album capable of converting any Christian who has faith in the regenerating power of music". He concluded by saying that "in the great trip through recurring themes of the catalogue of this messiah from Brejo do Cruz, Zé Ramalho goes far without leaving the place where he belongs since 1978".[8]
On Radio Itatiaia's portal, Raphael Vidigal said that "the elaborate and apocalyptic vocabulary, taken off profane and sacred books, with a mythical aura which turns to the past to predict a future of an often fearsome dystopia, is back", but he considered the album not too surprising for repeating "this recipe which sounded original when he created it". He said Ramalho's voice "is in the same place, even lower, but without the same moving power, given the predictability of verses, sounds and notes" and criticized even the album cover, labeling its aspect "careless". He finished by admitting that's "all good" because the singer "presents xotes and rocks, speaks about love, sex, the soul of men and places inhabited by them, extracts the fine taste of sensations of that which the world cannot explain [...]."[4]
Track listing
[edit]All tracks are written by Zé Ramalho.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "As Onze Palavras" (The Eleven Words) | 4:07 |
| 2. | "Beira-Mar, a Ressureição" (Near the Sea, the Resurrection) | 6:50 |
| 3. | "Cópula" (Copulation) | 3:38 |
| 4. | "O Diagrama da Alma Dourada" (The Golden Soul Diagram) | 3:44 |
| 5. | "A Estrada de Tijolos Amarelos" (The Yellow Bricks Road) | 4:05 |
| 6. | "Martelo Armagedon" (Armagedon Martelo[a]) | 4:01 |
| 7. | "O Gosto Fino das Sensações" (The Fine Taste of Sensations) | 4:07 |
| 8. | "O Que o Mundo Não Sabe Explicar" (What the World Cannot Explain) | 4:09 |
| 9. | "Olhar Entorpecido" (Numb Look) | 4:34 |
| 10. | "Repentista Marvel" (Marvel Repentista[b]) | 3:49 |
| 11. | "Amanhecer Tantra" (Tantra Dawn) | 4:01 |
| 12. | "Sextilhas Filosóficas" (Philosophical Sextillas) | 3:55 |
| Total length: | 51:00 | |
Personnel
[edit]- Zé Ramalho – vocals on all tracks; viola on all tracks; acoustic guitar and base arrangements on all tracks except "Repentista Marvel"
- Robertinho de Recife – guitar on "Beira Mar, A Ressurreição", "Cópula" and "O Gosto Fino das Sensações"; ponteio viola on "Martelo Armagedon" and "Repentista Marvel"; arrangement on "Cópula" and "Repentista Marvel"
- Andreas Kisser — guitar on "Repentista Marvel"
- Rogério Fernandes – bass on all tracks except "Cópula" and "Repentista Marvel"
- Rob Endraus – bass on "Cópula" and "Repentista Marvel"; loops on "Repentista Marvel"
- Eduardo Constant – drums on all tracks except "Cópula" and "Repentista Marvel"
- Zé Gomes – percussion on all tracks
- Toti Cavalcanti – saxophone on "A Estrada de Tijolos Amarelos", "O Que o Mundo Não Sabe Explicar" and "Olhar Entorpecido"; brass and brass arrangement on "Amanhecer Tantra"
- Waldonys — accordion on "Martelo Armagedon" and "Amanhecer Tantra"
- Beto Brito – rebec on "Repentista Marvel"
- Vladimir Sousa – string arrangement and keyboards on "As Onze Palavras", "Beira Mar, A Ressurreição", "A Estrada de Tijolos Amarelos", "Olhar Entorpecido" and "Amanhecer Tantra"
- Dodô de Moraes – string arrangement and keyboards on "O Diagrama da Alma Dourada", "O Gosto Fino das Sensações", "O Que o Mundo Não Sabe Explicar" and "Sextilhas Filosóficas"
- Technical personnel
- Robertinho de Recife — production, mixing and mastering
- Roberta Ramalho – executive producer
- Klebs Cavalcanti – production assistant
- Carlos Dias – production assistant and recording sessions pictures
- Leo Aversa – cover and booklet pictures
- Arnaldo Baptista – album title
Notes
[edit]- ^ "martelo" is a form of cordel literature.
- ^ A repentista is a person who performs the repente, a Brazilian improvised singing style.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Maria, Julio (2022-09-13). "Dizplay: Zé Ramalho diz que 'não há mais delírio na música brasileira'". O Estado de S. Paulo (in Brazilian Portuguese). Grupo Estado. Retrieved 2025-05-28.
- ^ a b c d "Zé Ramalho lança 'Ateu Psicodélico' após 10 anos sem disco de inéditas". Jornal da Paraíba. Grupo São Braz. 2022-09-09. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
- ^ a b c Ferreira, Mauro (2022-06-20). "Zé Ramalho apresenta 12 músicas autorais no álbum 'Ateu psicodélico'". G1. Grupo Globo. Retrieved 2025-05-28.
- ^ a b c Vidigal, Raphael (2022-09-14). "Zé Ramalho lança disco de inéditas após dez anos e não surpreende". Rádio Itatiaia. Retrieved 2025-05-27.
- ^ a b c d Cabral, Guilherme. ""Eu não estava morto"". A União. Empresa Paraibana de Comunicação. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
- ^ a b c Boere, Natália (2022-02-05). "Zé Ramalho faz primeiro show ao vivo em dois anos e prepara disco de inéditas". O Globo. Grupo Globo. Retrieved 2025-05-28.
- ^ Ferreira, Mauro (2022-09-11). "Arnaldo Baptista inspira o título do álbum 'Ateu psicodélico', de Zé Ramalho". G1. Grupo Globo. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
- ^ a b c d Ferreira, Mauro (2022-09-29). "Zé Ramalho se revigora, sem sair do lugar, na grande viagem mística do álbum 'Ateu psicodélico'". G1. Grupo Globo. Retrieved 2025-05-29.
- ^ a b Ferreira, Mauro (2022-08-19). "Zé Ramalho serve o habitual banquete de signos místicos no single 'As onze palavras'". G1. Grupo Globo. Retrieved 2025-05-28.