•
Not only the Brazilian sun warms the hearts".
Kathrin Albrecht about the concert in Aachen - Aachener-Zeitung - 11/2012
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"… Eight years after his debut album he now comes with a new album called Grampeado. Together with his band, which includes a lot of percussion, he brings a nice kind of South-American folk-pop. Mixing traditional rhythms with electronic sounds and his calm, down to earth vocals. Sometimes bluesy, sometimes rock [...] The twelve songs are of high quality…"
Eelco Schilder - FolkWorld - 11/2010
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"… It's worth a listen in to Grampeado - the second album of this singer-songwriter from Paraiba, Northeastern Brazil [...] With his warm, velvety-rough voice, the guitarist interprets sometimes fiction, sometimes true stories and his own reflections about life".
Katrin Wilke - Folker - 10/2010
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"In
Santos' music, Samba can be turned into Soul, and Bossa into Blues. This
works as a homogenous blending, if one - in spite of the "exile"
- is deeply rooted in one's own, in this case north eastern, culture of
one's home country."
Frankfurter Rundschau
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"…A
few days ago, the news came that a song by Ivan Santos and Lenine won
the Grammy. The song is called "Ninguém faz idéia"
and is on the cd "Lenine InCité". […] Brasil
com S congratulates these two artists, who enrich our music ever more
intensisvely."
Tânia Gabrielli und Clemens Maria-Pohlmann - Brasil com S
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"…Songs from Nowhere (2002) by Ivan Santos is an album that
I have come to like a lot over the past few weeks, and it certainly
deserves your attention (…) The
magic of this album is in its details: each time you listen, you discover
new aspects, new twists in the lyrics, nice aspects in the arrangements
and rhythms, etc."
Olaf Brugman - Goiaba Brazilian Music
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"...
The result is sophisticated pop music with Brazilian roots, also appealing
to people who have nothing really to do with Brazil itself."
Hans-Jürgen Lenhart - Jazzthetik
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"Lady
Multimelancólica, a ballad of undisputable beauty, is the highlight
of Songs from Nowhere, which has other great moments in "Cris me
Quis", "Na Lona", and "Mau Jesus e o Bom Ladrão".
All these compositions were created in Germany by that artist from Paraíba,
who arrived there alone with his courage, taking the challenge of starting
a musical carreer abroad without resorting to old clichés."
Felipe Tadeu - International Magazine
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"Songs
from Nowhere" - songs floating in the air. They make us jump, smile,
and dream".
Michael Kegler - Nova Cultura
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"Seriousness
and self-will are important elements of the music and character of the
49-year-old artist, as well as the objective to simply sum up even the
most complex things. In the meantime, Santos has played with only one
or two percussionists, and in recent years, has developed a poetry that
is playful and less fraught with significance, but nonetheless worth
reading and listening to. The fundamental element of his CD "Songs
from Nowhere" is the idea of graspable, though not profane, pop
minimalism..."
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
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"...
In his music, traditional rhythms of the North East Brazil, such as
Baião and Maracatu continue to survive. But as a global player,
Santos, who amongst other songs has written "Lady Multimelancólica"
for Rosanna & Zélia, does not confine himself to nurturing
his roots. Rather, he has been searching for years for the crossover
between Blues, Rock, Pop, Funk, and Reggae, thus creating an urban sound
just like colleagues such as Lenine, which allows for many associations."
Journal Frankfurt