Caetano Veloso Circulado CD

Personnel: Caetano Veloso (vocals, guitar, handclaps); Gilberto Gil (vocals, guitar); Bebel Gilberto, Audrey Martells, Billy Carrion, Laurie Andriamampianina, Gal Costa, Kazu Makino, (vocals); Toni Costa, Arto Lindsay, Marc Ribot (guitar); Jacques Morelenbaum (cello); Riyuichi Sakamoto (strings, piano, keyboards, bass, samples); Butch Morris (cornet); Oswaldinho (accordion); Andres Levin (keyboards, samples); Arthur Maia, Tavino Fialho, Melvin Gibbs (bass); Marcelo Costa (drums, timbales, percussion); Tony Lewis (drums); Marcos Amma (congas, percussion); Armando Marcal (tambourines, percussion); Moreno Veloso (percusion, maculele sticks); Monica Millet (pandeiro); Nana Vasconcelos (talking drum, ceramic, congas); Sacha Amback (samples); Edith Oliviera (knife, plate); Wellington Soares (handclaps, maculele sticks); Amilton Lino (timbau, surdo).
Recorded at Polygram Studios, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and East Hill Studios, New York, New York.
This album had so much success that it yielded the show and album Circuladō Ao Vivo. It opens with "Fora Da Ordem," a funk track dealing with urban socio-economic problems in Brazil. "Circuladō de Fulō," a baiao with cello and Indian-like scales, was built over the concrete poet Haroldo de Campos' poem of the same name (from the book Galįxias). "Itapua" is a modern elegy for the beautiful beach, where Veloso is backed by a contemporary arrangement for string quartet and rhythmic section. "Boas Vindas," a rhythmic Bahian samba with special guest Gilberto Gil, highlights love for life. "Ela Ela," written with Arto Lindsay, brings modernist interventions of both. In "Santa Clara, Padroeira Da Televisao," Veloso tries to exorcise the bad name of television through a happy and rhythmic percussive groove. His usual renditions of forgotten values of the past are represented in this album by the beautiful "Baiao da Penha" (Guio De Mories/David Nasser). "Neide Candolina" draws from the example of a black woman who transcended poverty through hard work. "O Cu Do Mundo," with the participation of Gal Costa and Gilberto Gil, has with all its aggressiveness a criticism directed at violence. "A Terceira Margem Do Rio" is a beautiful composition by Milton Nascimento/Veloso. Under its universe of ecological images, glimpses of psychoanalytical and semantic impressions show. The bossa "Lindeza" closes the album with delicacy, with keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto as a guest accompanist. ~ Alvaro Neder
Produced with great finesse by Arto Lindsay, this 1991 recording features Caetano Veloso vocally in great form and lyrically touching upon the usual wide variety of subjects. "Flor da Ordem" declares the new world order to be out of order, while "Circulado de Fulo" is an excerpt from the book GALAXIAS, a classic of modern Brazilian literature. Moreno Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Nana Vasconcelos, and Gal Costa all show up accompanying Veloso in some interesting arrangements.
The track "Ela Ela," with Arto Lindsay improvising on electric guitar, sounds like it would more at home on ARACA AZUL, Veloso's most avant-garde record. The rest of the tunes, however, are more listenable fare and foreshadow the singer's eclectic direction with TROPICALIA 2. Both musically and lyrically, CIRCULADO is an excellent example of well-crafted pop music.Rolling Stone (6/25/92, p.45) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "..Veloso is a true pop poet as well as a brilliant pop musician...Musically as well as politically, CIRCULADO evokes Veloso's pluralistic vision of a diverse world culture composed of "several beautiful harmonies".."
New York Times (Publisher) (9/11/92, p.C24) - "..his third and best album to be released in America...[his] lyrics address issues, but also look beyond them into poetic essences of things.."