Relax

Description

Alexandre Kassin is one of the most important producers and instrumentalists in Brazilian music. He has produced some one hundred albums for singers such as Marisa Monte and Bebel Gilberto, recorded with Sean O’Hagan (Stereolab, High Llamas), and made an entire album based on sounds from the Nintendo Game Boy. He is also Caetano Veloso’s live bassist. His new album, Relax, draws its roots from dreams and surrealism. Across 11 tracks, Kassin flirts with Latin rhythms, Brazilian pop, and soul, using this varied stylistic spectrum to tell imagined stories of death, drugs, politics, and destiny. There is a dichotomy in Relax, with often bright and danceable arrangements mixed with incredibly dark themes. It is a record that speaks directly to the yin and yang of everyday life, and to the uncertainty that comes with simply existing.