The Wire (UK)

Unlike his fellow Brazilians Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil, singer-songwriter Cantuaria likes to push the envelopes and fuse gorgeous Tropicalismo bossa nova rhythms with sly avant garde techniques that you probably would not notice if you were dancing to this in lime-coloured Capri pants and matching espadrilles.
Cantuaria has worked with Laurie Anderson, David Byrne, Brian Eno, Bill Frisell and Arto Lindsay, which might explains where this noise is coming from. Its roots are in classic Brazilian pop-jazz, obviously in the school of Antonio Carlos Jobim, whose “A Felicidade” Cantuaria covers here. But lean a little closer to your speakers and you’ll find a subtext bubbling away on this subtly subversive recording.
Some of his ravishing melodies and rhythms take me back to a magical fortnight spent on the Cape Verde islands. It’s some of the sexiest music I have heard this side of the sainted Milton Nascimento. The difference between Cantuaria and Nascimento, however, is the former’s mischievous tendency to insinuate electronic and ambient effects into what in other hands might just be clichéd latinismo, and arrangements involving The Bessler String Quartet, who contribute to a teasingly complex widescreen effect. The David Byrne connection is apposite: Cantuaria’s lyrics deserve a careful hearing, as he doesn’t come from the moon-June school of lyric writing.
The ultimate test of Cantuaria’s Silva is perhaps rather intimate. If you can’t seduce the object of your desires to his accompaniment, then they’re probably not worth it.