Ascensão, this contemporary classic of both Brazilian music and culture, captures the clarity and grace of Serena Assumpção in her invocation and embrace of a fundamental but little considered understanding: that we all are, essentially, spiritual beings. Hence, the breath – air, mystery, inspiration – which gives rise to life, consequently, gives rise to chanting; that's why we sing, to return to what we are and to the source of what sound is: propagated vibration, energy. In the Yorùbá (Nagô) cosmogony, each spirit (soul, head) is described as an ori. Oris inhabit an invisible realm called Òrun, also Heaven, ruled by the primal force of the Òrìṣà (the Orishas, Orixás in portuguese), the vital and sacred energy present in all natural elements: the aṣẹ (axé). As such, the earthly life, the bodily and individual human experience of each ori constitutes but a mere and brief interval, a journey through this visible realm that we call Earth, world, the Ayé. Thus, all the paths each embodied being on earth choses and travels by – movement and transformation – are attempts to return, to elevate oneself to the invisible realm, and to heal the visible realm. This is to ascend, this is Ascensão.
For this ascent, Serena Assumpção harmoniously and expressively combines voices and cycles, chants, and sounds – the energy which does not turn into matter touches infinity – with reverence to her own ancestry through the faith of Candomblé, an African diasporic Brazilian religion, also through the poetry and musicality of the rites and songs of African-Brazilian culture and the wisdom chronicled and bequeathed through the spoken word, through ancestral orality. Assumpção collects and assembles here, above all, the enchantment that emanates from the essential gesture of singing, playing, dancing for the orishas and, by inviting us to this xirê – evocation whirl – she offers us, in a fellowship with so many notable Brazilian artists with whom she shared a generation, a hieratic document derived from her research and moulded entirely in dedication to Èṣù (Exu), Ògún (Ogum), Ọ̀ṣọ́ọ̀sì (Oxóssi), Òṣùmàrè (Oxumaré), Ṣàngó (Xangô), Yàńsàn-án (Iansã), Ọṣun (Oxum), Yemọja (Iemanjá), Ìrókò (Irôko), Nàná (Nanã), Obalúayé (Obaluaiê) and Obatalá (Oxalá). And so, all through Ascensão, we find ourselves continuously amidst celebration and gift, intoning and sailing atavic frequencies.
Not only our ears, but the whole extension of our bodies is guided and celebrated by the flow and the flood of the four elements of the universe (oṣa) – water, earth, fire, and air – encircled by animals and plants, the colours, shapes and textures of natural and celestial beings. Because the mantra that resounds here tells us: listening is protection. That we can close our eyes and be sheltered in this visible and invisible realm of Serena Assumpção: here so many waters roll – the primaeval waves of the Kalunga (sea) of the Bakongo people (Bantu) – both salty and sweet, in solid and liquid states, and, from gas state, we are kissed by the air of gales and breezes. There is so much earth, beaten soil, sand from the seas, dirt from the roads, the dust of what remains. Fire comes with spears and metals, glares and flames, transformation. Therefore, this timeless album is also a liturgy for Brazilian memory in the form of musical notes (soul) and words (body), which by the celebration of the grain of love, the praise of the magnitude of encounters and the mustering of hope, rescues, expresses and welcomes life in its utter vibrating spheres. Axé.
Bruna Beber, May 2022
(Brazilian Poet and Researcher of Voice Poetics - UNICAMP)
A2. Ogum
Featuring – Gustavo Souza, Tatá Aeroplano, Tulipa Ruiz
Arranged By – Alfredo Bello, Gustavo Souza, Marcelo Monteiro, Serena Assumpção, Tatá Aeroplano
Lyrics & Music By – Gilberto Martins
A3. Pavão
Featuring – Anelis Assumpção, Curumin
Arranged By – Anelis Assumpção, Curumin
Lyrics & Music By – Joãosinho Da Goméa
A4. Oxumaré
Featuring – Moreno Veloso, Mãeana
Lyrics & Music By – Gilberto Martins
A5. Xangô
Featuring – Juçara Marçal, Kiko Dinucci
Arranged By – Kiko Dinucci, Serena Assumpção, Simone Sou, Thiago França
Lyrics & Music By – Gilberto Martins
A6. Iansã
Featuring – Luz Marina, Tetê Espíndola
Arranged By – Luz Marina
Lyrics & Music By – Gilberto Martins
B1. Oxum
Featuring – Xênia França
Arranged By – Curumin, Klaus Sena, Pipo Pegoraro, Ricardo Braga, Serena Assumpção
Lyrics & Music By – Gilberto Martins
B2. Iemanjá
Featuring – Céu
Arranged By – DiPa, Maurício Badé, Pipo Pegoraro, Serena Assumpção
Lyrics & Music By – Serena Assumpção
B3. Irokô
Featuring – Gabi Guedes, Mariana Aydar
Arranged By – Letieres Leite
Lyrics & Music By – Gilberto Martins
B4. Nanã
Featuring – Paula Pretta
Arranged By – DiPa , Paula Pretta, Pipo Pegoraro, Serena Assumpção, Simone Sou
Lyrics & Music By – Gilberto Martins
B5. Obaluiê
Featuring – Carlos Navas, Filipe Catto, Juliana Kehl, Marcelo Pretto
Arranged By – Adriano Grineberg, Carlos Navas, Juliana Kehl, Marcelo Pretto, Pipo Pegoraro, Lyrics & Music By – Gilberto Martins & Serena Assumpção
B6. Oxalá
Featuring – Pipo Pegoraro
Lyrics & Music By – Cantiga Iorubá
Recorded at Audiorama Studios, Brasil by DipA, Vitor Moraes, Mario Arantes, Fernando Rischbieter/Sabiá by Pipo Pegoraro, Guilherme Destro/YB by Fernando Rischbieter/Estúdio. T (Salvador) by André T/Terreiro du Passo by Alfredo Bello.
Produced for vinyl release by Neal Birnie & George Camdonios
Mastered and cut by Martijn Schouten at Artone Studio, Haarlem.
Artwork by Julia Rocha
Additional Sleeve Design by Kai Damian Matthiesen
License curtesy of Barão Manteiga Produções Artísticas LTDA.
Special thanks to Andrea Vilas Boas Bourgogne, Brisa Chander and Marina Deeh.
Brazilian singer, songwriter, Serena Assumpção, directed a host of musicians to produce her first and only release,
Ascensão, before her death in 2016. Continuing the legacy of her father Itamar Assumpção, a leading figure of the alternative music scene in São Paulo, her album was released posthumously to critical acclaim and is considered a contemporary classic of Brazilian music ....more
Magic in its purest form. I love Floating Points, I love Pharoah Sanders, I love The London Symphony Orchestra. It's a match made in heaven, and the result is absolutely gorgeous. I have loved this record since its release, and realized I don't own it for some reason. So its time to change that. 9.5/10 honestly could become a 10/10 on an indepth vinyl relisten. angrypizza98
Gorgeous minimalist arrangements and one of the most beautiful and moving voices I've ever heard. Lady Blackbird brings a Monk-like ability to get right into your guts and start rooting around. brussb