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Four years after their Discrepant debut - 'OOOO' -, Lisbon-based travellers Jibóia return to the fold with another offering of globetrotting psychedelia with 'Salar'. With the core trio of Óscar Silva, Ricardo Martins and Mestre André augmented by a stellar parade of collaborators on various roles, 'Salar' further expands on the transglobal visions by now pretty trademarked by the band. Intersped among shorter vignettes for drums, saxophone and bass, each of the more fully fleshed tracks casts a guest to elevate Jibóia's music to uncharted realms - both in a mystical and geographical sense.

Opener 'Selar' summons the cello of songstress Joana Guerra for a skewed dialogue with Silva's guitar, propelled by Martins' drums and percussion and André's electronic textures into 4 minutes and 20 seconds that feel epic - if there was any psychedelic numerological symbolism needed. On 'Solar', Silva's non-western plucking rides on for Yaw Tembe's trumpet to veer in a multitude in directions, while the mysterious 'Sitar' conjures the voice of moroccan musician Ayoub ElAyady for a contemplative nighttime prayer. Elsewhere, guitarist Rui Carvalho aka Filho da Mãe injects dissonant guitar lines unto 'Sarar's pummelling dance and Pedro Augusto's electronics hover below the shapeshifting dynamics of 'Sonar', among mesmerising keyboard lines. 'Salir' featuring Daiyen Jone enchanted flute brings the album to a close at its most reflective, all crepuscular synth lines and reverbed handclaps.

credits

It flows as it should and in OOOO it’s no different. Inspired by the philosophy of Phythagoras and his concept Musica Universalis, that speaks about an interspatial harmony created by the movement of the planets and the sound frequency it creates. It’s a poetic theory that imagines the sound produced by the movement of the planets and what we can listen to when we listen to the universe. The first three tracks are a reference to those frequencies and the last one, Topos, references an idea of accomplishment, of arrival and the sum of the experience.

So, yes, OOOO it’s a bit of a trip. A voyage of imagined sounds produced by three musicians in a constant dialogue and with a different focus in each track. Each of the first three tracks (Diapason, Diapente and Diatessaron) are developed with the focused on the instruments of one of the musicians, while the other two expand and enriches the range of the initial movement. First track focusses on Óscar’s instruments, the second one on Ricardo’s and the third on André’s. On the fourth and last one they explore the flux of ideas each one delivered to OOOO.

Topos doesn’t sum up the experience. It’s not intended to be a conclusion or an end to OOOO, it’s an open circuit of ideas that reinforces the free-minded rock that the three musicians explore, creating a new place where their music finds new routines. It just makes you want to go back to the beginning, again and again, reinforcing the feeling that Jibóia’s belongs to this world without sounding like anything from this world.

Recorded and mixed by Bernardo Barata
Mastered & Cut by Rashad Becker
Artwork by Margarida Borges