MAWACA is a performing and recording Brazilian group that is also known for the interesting research and recreation of the music from all over the world. Mawaca singers perform in fifteen languages.

During its 16-year-career, Mawaca has produced six albums and a DVD. The newest album - “Rupestres Sonoros – A tribute to the people from the forest” presents indigenous songs from different regions of Amazonia. Rupestres Sonoros was ranked 4th in World Music Charts Europe in August 2009. This recording has revealed an inner which was unknown to most people. Always directed and produced by Magda Pucci, Mawaca has developed a solid career. Without any support from the mainstream music industry, the band relies on sold out concerts and a faithful audience in Brazil. One of its distinctive characteristics is its cultural plurality which is always involving the audience in the dialogue between ancient and modern and west and east.

Ethos Music – Profile MAWACA - www.mawaca.com.br - São Paulo - Brasil

The repertoire consists of new versions of songs from different traditions such as the Japanese and the African, from countries and regions as distant as Finland and Mexico and the Iberian Peninsula, and always establishing connections with Brazilian music elements.

Mawaca surprises all of us , Brazilians and foreigners, for never before has an all Brazilian band been able to show the diversity of music from all over the globe with such flexibility and creativity.

Ethos Music – Profile MAWACA - www.mawaca.com.br - São Paulo - Brasil

RUPESTRES SONOROS - Chants of Amazonia peoples

Mawaca consolidates its career with CD “Rupestres Sonoros” showing to the world the most impressive performance of Brazilian indigenous songs with great talent. Marlui Miranda

“Rupestres Sonoros” is Mawaca´s newest album and presents highly original arrangements and new versions of indigenous musical themes from the Amazon forest. It is a tribute to the people of the forest, like the Suruí from Rondônia, the Kayapó from Xingu, the Pakaa Nova from Guaporé, the Kaxinawá from , among others. It is possible to listen to the sounds of an inner Brazil that is bigger than one can imagine, for the indigenous musical diversity is broad and extremely rich although mostly unknown even by the Brazilian audience.

Mawaca and Marlui Miranda on Rupestres Sonoros at Sesc Santo André launch

Ethos Music – Profile MAWACA - www.mawaca.com.br - São Paulo - Brasil

Mawaca looks into musical archaeology and ancestral imagery because the prehistoric Brazilian man is one who danced, practiced rituals, celebrated life, hunted, drank chicha, loved, painted himself with urucum, addressed himself to the spirits of the sky, the air and the earth, and also adorned himself with necklaces and head ornaments.

2011 – Amazonian Tour - Forest (En) Chants

On 2011 Mawaca met six different indigenous peoples: Suruí, and Ikolen Gavião from Rondônia; Kambeba and Comunidade Bayaroá from Amazonas and Kaxinawa-Huni-Kuin from Acre. During their meatins they played and sang together and performed on the same stage.

Ethos Music – Profile MAWACA - www.mawaca.com.br - São Paulo - Brasil

The band leader Magda Pucci commented on the motivations which led her to produce this project: "There are more than 200 indigenous groups living here in Brazil and we don't even know their names or who they are. This is something that intrigued me. How are those songs sung in the middle of the forest, for some spirit, to cure someone, to celebrate life? Obviously we are missing on something important. That's why I was looking forward to showing these songs to people who are living close to the indigenous peoples but don't know anything about them. They have strong musicality that we need to know, to respect and to enjoy.

To watch Forest (En) Chants http://youtu.be/4fpZ5PZC6Nc

To watch Rupestres Sonoros scenes click on So Perewaitxé - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuX8AbsrxQw Tamota Moriore - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvWSpNbtthY Kayapó Song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk-6IRVu7DY

Mawaca and Ikolen- Gavião people during the performance

Ethos Music – Profile MAWACA - www.mawaca.com.br - São Paulo - Brasil

Rupestres Sonoros - Music from the rock carvings

Produced by Xuxa Levy, Magda Pucci and Paulo Bira, the recording is being acclaimed as the best CD of the Mawaca career because of its atmospheric soundscapes using, as inspiration, the images of some archaeological places in Brazil like Serra da Capivara in Piauí and Monte Alegre in Pará.

It is possible to listen to the sounds of an inner Brazil that is bigger than one can imagine, for the native musical diversity is broad and extremely rich although mostly unknown even by the Brazilian audience. Magda Pucci, Mawaca´s musical director – has been discovering interesting connections between the rock art and the symbolic universe from different ethnic groups from Amazonia area.

Ethos Music – Profile MAWACA - www.mawaca.com.br - São Paulo - Brasil

Magda Pucci comments on the motivations which led her to produce this project: “ There are more than 200 tribes here in Brazil, and we don't even know their names or who they are. This is something that intrigued me. How those songs are sung in the middle of the forest, for some spirit, to cure someone, to celebrate life. And then I realized that in Brazil we have about 180 different languages spoken by the indigenous people, and some of them are endangered. And what is most curious and absurd is that we never listened to those languages. Obviously we are missing something important, an essence that we are not able to capture anymore! That's why I was looking forward to showing old songs and also composing some to explore the abundant sonority of the languages spoken there. The spoken word is music as well the songs. They have a strong musicality that we need to know to respect and enjoy. It was necessary to transform this music,and, as the original tempo of these songs is decelerated, it has taken another dimension. So, in order to make them more comprehensible to our accelerated ears, used to the urban sounds, we mixed these sonorities with other elements to make the chants closer to the contemporary world”.

Ethos Music – Profile MAWACA - www.mawaca.com.br - São Paulo - Brasil

press comments about Mawaca

TOP TEN WORLD MUSIC CHARTS – 2009 “A magical construction based upon the voices of the seven female voices and six musicians of Mawaca. Using the music of indigenous Amazon people as the springboard, they create a unique sounding mixture of ancient and modern, which does not fear to step into contemporary areas just as into more 'traditional' territory. Driven by the voices, and in this sense not unlike their contemporaries Värttinä, the tunes are melodic and stuffed to the brim with the unexpected”. www.wmce.de

Mawaca is surprising, subversive and very charming Peter Culshaw – Observer - London

Mawaca reinvents the traditions creating bridges between cultures. Leonardo Lichote. O Globo

Listening to Mawaca is a musical journey across every border and through time itself. A journey where rich and beautiful voices form a gorgeous aural tapestry with accomplished and wonderful instrumentalists. Mawaca is an ensemble not to be missed if one has the opportunity through their decade long collection of records. Mark Bacon – Pan American Rhythms – Lousiana – USA

Sensitive research. This is the best word to describe São Paulo's vocal octet in their first CD. Luís Antonio Giron – Gazeta Mercantil

To establish connections between different styles and rhythms are Mawaca's trade mark. Vogue Magazine

Mawaca joins sonorities and styles with sensitivity and imagination. Revista Bravo!

“MAWACA is the only Brazilian group that makes REAL WORLD music anywhere in the world.” Chico César – Brazilian composer and singer

Ethos Music – Profile MAWACA - www.mawaca.com.br - São Paulo - Brasil

SONGLINES MAGAZINE Review by Jill Turner – November 2009 **** ( Four stars)

“Percussion, minimal instrumental accompaniment, vocal chants, improvisations and ambient sounds are layered to create a musical tapestry which is primordial, ritualistic, bold and dramatic in nature. Polyphonic choirs congregate with global shaman to unleash the magical power of words and the hypnotic qualities of drums. The ceremonies begin, spirits evoked, the creator appeased and finally the world is brought back from an apocalyptic brink. Sounding similar to a Philip Glass opera, the overall feel is one of a performance soundtrack to a contemporary dance piece perhaps, no surprise, given Mawaca’s sell out theatrical stage shows. For “Rupestres Sonoros ”, their sixth studio album, they stay closer to their Sao Paulo home and gather songs and stories of the Kaxinawa, Surui, Gavião and the Wari people of Amazonia. Voices are used to create rhythm, singing in ancient languages with the addition of vocal improvisations, inspired by the rock carvings from Brazil’s archeological heritage. The “testimonies in stone that make us reflect on our human condition”, cites Magda Pucci, the group’s musical director and arranger, who successfully demonstrates that metaphysical questions remain the same irrespective of our time or place on the earth. ‘Tamota Moriore / Kokiriko no Bushi’ explores commonality between both Japanese and Brazilian customs. ‘Waiko Koman’ is the sound of chaos, the explosion that created the earth, knowledge held by the Suruí for thousands of years. Meticulous research and a desire to pay homage to the indigenous people, sees Marlui Miranda lending her support with a vocal solo on ‘Matsã Kawa'. In addition to the music, there’s plenty to explore with the accompanying forty page illustrated booklet detailing musicians, the lyrics and background to each song plus references to the numerous field recordings and academic texts. Currently written in Portuguese this may change with a full international release”.

Ethos Music – Profile MAWACA - www.mawaca.com.br - São Paulo - Brasil

mawaca discography

1998 – CD MAWACA - PLUS 2000 – CD astrolabio.tucupira.com.brasil 2000 – CD MAWACA – REMIX 2.0 2001 – CD OS LUSÍADAS 2004 – CD MAWACA PRA TODO CANTO 2005 – BOX MAWACA 10 YEARS 2006 – DVD MAWACA PRA TODO CANTO 2008 – CD RUPESTRES SONOROS 2010 – DVD RUPESTRES SONOROS concerts in Brazil

São Paulo – tous les theatres de la cité – Auditório Ibirapuera, Sala São Paulo, Theatro Municipal, SESCs, Santa Cruz, CCBB, etc. In Brazil – Rio (Rock In Rio 2000, CCBB), Recife (Recbeat Festival); Brasilia (CCBB, Auditorio Claudio Santoro); Londrina; Campinas, Grande ABC; Belo Horizonte and other cities in .

international shows

2002 – Tour Spain – Etnosur, Suristan, Santiago de Compostela 2003 - Womex - Sevilha 2006 - Popkomm - Berlim 2007/2008 - Latin America 2010 – China Universal Expo 2011 – Second World Leisure Expo Hangzhou (China) contacts

www.mawaca.com.br

Concerts => [email protected] Publishing => BASEMENT (John Telfer) => [email protected]

Ethos Music – Profile MAWACA - www.mawaca.com.br - São Paulo - Brasil