Acopalices: too late to succumb

Jazzy, sophisticated and elegant, D'Agua Negra's new track is an antidote to chaos and a pure delight for the senses


Take a deep breath. Dive in. What follows is strangeness, surprise, welcome, and pleasure, basically in that order. Explicitly inspired by the mystical river that runs through Manaus, D'Água Negra is about resilience, yes, but much more about movement and the transformative and absolutely necessary power of art.

Mixing the green of the jungle that floods (less and less) the eyes of the Amazonians, the dramatic red of the internal spaces of the Manaus theater, the gray of the industrial zone that surrounds the city, and the black, unavoidable, of the river waters, the group's chromatic palette is revealed.
Escaping from obviousness, D'Água Negra is an Amazonian product, undoubtedly, but without any commitment to the regional cliché.
Composed by Clariana Brandão Arruda, Bruno Barrozo Belchior and Melka (the last to join the then duo), the trio, with completely different academic backgrounds, lawyer, psychologist, and pediatrician, respectively, found themselves tied to the same, pulsating theme: the rare manauara idiosyncrasy, or, to go further, the northeastern idiosyncrasy.

All born in the capital of Amazonas and similarly involved in cultural projects, particularly in the field of music, their paths crossed in early 2020, just before they were separated by the pandemic. Isolated, each one in his own private universe, they watched the images coming from their backyards, which were printed on the pages of newspapers all over the world. Open graves and more open graves, bodies in excess, lack of oxygen, death. Manaus was chaotic. Reminiscent of a Bosch painting, the horrifying scenes were the perfect illustration of the apocalypse.

Stuck to these images, alone, in her apartment, surrounded only by cats and plants, Melka began to compose Acopalices. "It was during moments of reflection, internalizing feelings and glimpsing possibilities that I closed my eyes and saw 3 suns. I never imagined that I would be part of this group, but I felt, at that moment, a desire to have more life because one sun alone was not being able, at that time, to supply all the needs," she says.

After the most critical moments of the pandemic, the artists got together again, and this time, already under the perspective of a trio, they started working together, the genesis of the band. Proposing a unique aesthetic, D'Água Negra presents a singular urban concept, like Manaus itself, stuck in the forest, but struggling to breathe, reinventing itself amidst symbols that refer to an exuberant past, which no longer serves, but persists, like the imposing theater, the city's postcard, not far from the riverside communities that bravely resist the advances of the chainsaw.

The result of these paradoxes gives rise to a diffuse, almost complex sonority that, during the pandemic, can deepen even more into an opaque, almost mystical essence that characterizes and completes the band's prolix nature. Acopalices translates this proposal well.

The first creation of the group with the new formation, Melka's lyrics ended up being absorbed by the other members, who brought to the track their own reading of the apocalypse. "In a moment of emptying of daily habits caused by isolation, Acopalices is an internal implosion that becomes art, where we can find a gap to shout our position to the world," explains Bruno
Full of personality and elegant, the track delivers the sensuality of the trio from the vocals, perfectly tuned, which accompany a sophisticated melody, alternating between neo soul and NU jazz, resulting in a purely sensory sound experience. All this contradicting and creating a perfect paradox with the title Acopalices.

Reference to a meme that went viral in Brazil during the pandemic, Acopalices is a corruption of the word apocalypse, revealing the comical face of the Brazilian even in the face of the tragedy caused by Covid-19.

"We all lost someone close to family to this virus and found ourselves, in many moments, without the strength to transform reality, powerless. On the other hand, we cannot afford the luxury of mourning because we must think about daily survival. Brazilians laugh at tragedy as an antidote to their pain. We need to move forward, always, our life depends on this movement," Melka contextualized.

Nothing could be more symbolic than the river Rio Negro to illustrate the importance of this flow. "D'Água Negra brings a fundamental geographical location for us, as a Manaura project, from the North, but, just like the river, whose waters evaporate and travel to the continents, we also embrace different artistic languages, references such as jazz, blues, soul, breakbeat, electronic music, in short, we are a musical laboratory open to everything, connecting us to the whole world," explained Bruno.