In one sense, I feel unqualified to review this CD. I simply don't know that much about Brazilian music - I mean, I have a handful of Gilberto Gil, João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and other bossa nova albums, one by Tom Zé to represent a more contemporary Brazilian music, and, uh, lotsa Stereolab (since that band has been strongly influenced, particularly in recent albums, by various Brazilian musics. But I can't really tell you much about Cantuária's musical history, which is quite impressive, according to this CD's press release. Cantuária's written a couple of big hits for major Brazilian artists like Cataeno Veloso and has released a couple of acclaimed CDs in the U.S. as well. In another sense, though, none of that matters: only critics listen to music as a piece of an evolving history; the rest of us just want to know what it sounds like and whether it's any good. And that I can tell you: it's a sensual, rhythmic recording unafraid of subtlety and space. That sense of space gives an intensity and weight to each note and every rhythm - there's no overwhelming rush of volume or speed that some less-assured musicians hide their notes behind. Cantuária's Brazilian heritage shows in the sublimely rhythmic acoustic guitar foundation of most these songs, as well as in the lilting melodicism arching above that foundation. But he's not content to be any sort of traditionalist: perhaps like British Richard Thompson and American Alejandro Escovedo, his rootedness in various musical traditions gives his explorations of less traveled musical regions a sense of authority, of lived-in-ness, that more dilettantish musicians can never match. For example, the rapidly picked guitar figure that underlies "Aviso ao Navegante" seems almost Reichian in one way of listening, its five-note figure darting in and out of the prevailing 4/4 beat. But it also seems (and may be) entirely idiomatic, wholly Brazilian, in its syncopation: not a grotesque, forced joining of different musics but an organic growing-together. Cantuária's brought quite a crew with him, ranging from jazzers Bill Frisell and Joey Baron, downtown scenesters Arto Lindsay and Laurie Anderson, neo-hipsters Sean Lennon, Steve Cohen, and Peter Apfelbaum, as well as the esteemed Brazilian musicians Nana Vasconcelos and others. While a more or less traditional ensemble of acoustic guitar, bass, and percussion performs most songs here, half the tracks feature Erik Friedlander's darkly romantic cello (including one on which he's joined by the rest of a string quartet), others feature small horn sections, and samples and synthesizers provide a contemporary backdrop to several selections. In all, Cantuária engages both the hips and the head, as well as the heart that joins them both.

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