Aotearoa meets Sao Paulo

Six NZ musicians spent three weeks in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as part of the Bacardi B-Live OE, organised by Bacardi and Wellington’s Loop Recordings. P Digsss (Shapeshifter), Barnaby Weir (Black Seeds, Fly My Pretties), Hollie Smith, Recloose, Maaka McGregor and Alda Rezende worked with 60 Brazilian musicians to create an album for Loop, which is due for release in October 2006. Singer/songwriter Hollie Smith spoke about the once in a lifetime experience in the NZ Herald: “The music is almost secondary to the experience … but the music’s still going fantastically well … Like every musician says, music is an international language and once you start playing, the barriers break down and there’s a lot of freedom there to talk to each other through song.” The Herald describes Smith as “the voice of 2006,” thanks to her work on Bathe in the River from the No.2 film soundtrack.