Camburi

My contact in Sao Paulo, Eduardo Ramos, records as Pandit Pam Pam and is head man at a record label called Boston Medical Group. A few months ago he sent me a couple of new tracks he'd recorded including one intriguingly with Henry Olsen guesting, a track called Lago...

Pandit Pam Pam often blends electronics, ambient and more organic instruments and sounds. On Lago Eduardo has perfected it, finding a sweet spot where laid back Brazilian cool, gamelan and ambient blur together. Eduardo said that Henry was top class, a joy to work with bring, and that he brought so much to the sound and the songs. 

Henry Olsen you might recall was the bass player for Primal Scream, between 1988 and 1995. He played bass on Screamadelica, the Dixie- Narco EP and Give Out But Don't Give Up as well as the self titled album they released in 1989. Before this while based in Manchester Henry played in Nico's band The Faction when on tour (a life detailed brilliantly and vividly in James Farmer's book Songs They Never Play On The Radio, an account of Farmer's time as Nico's keyboard player, while Nico lived in North Manchester). After playing with Primal Scream Henry played bass for Beth Orton. In the Classic Albums episode about Screamadelica Henry comes across as a thoughtful, articulate person, speaking highly of Denise Johnson especially. 

Pandit Pam Pam's album Camburi came out last week with Lago as one of the nine tracks. It's a lovely album, opening with the analogue ambience of Verlaine, a track followed by a second collaboration with Henry, a chilled, percussive two minutes called Failed Gamelan with some muted trumpet by Joao Sousa. Most of the tracks are fairly short, mood pieces and sketches fleshed out into songs. The longer Burroughs And Associates has dancing synths and drone waves. Joao Sousa's trumpet playing returns on Neuva, a jazz flecked fanfare with ambient synths. The final song is named after Eduardo's new born second child Diogo, Diogo's Heart, and has Hamilton Beck's wonderful, emotive lap steel guitar up front, an excursion to the recent ambient- Americana sounds of groups like SUSS and Nashville Ambient Ensemble. This sounds in some ways like it shouldn't work- ambient analogue synths from Brazil with the former bass player from Primal Scream, with trumpet, gamelan and lap steel guitar as the lead sounds- but it does, it works beautifully, a superbly cohesive and moving album. Listen and buy Camburi at Bandcamp.