Tocaya by Nicola Lemos

"Tocaya" is the first album by Brazilian musician, singer and composer Nicola Lemos. Living in London for 7 years, the album recognises the influences of the home country - there are afoxé, samba and Bahian music - and the references acquired in Europe, especially folk and rock. The album was produced by the artist himself in his home studio, mastered by Otávio Carvalho, nominated three times for the Latin Grammy.

A prolific composer, Nicola signed alone 7 of the 10 tracks on the album - "Talismã" is a version of the indie classic by the group Graveola, "Caravana da Alegria" is a partnership with Claudia Lemos and "Dias" is written by Paulo Lemos. The recurrence of the family surname, by the way, is an important aspect of the work: in his phonographic debut, Nicola makes a point of rescuing people and places of fundamental importance in his artistic journey. The several feats are, first of all, special people for him.

This memorialist atmosphere also appears in the lyrics that try to convey the strange and beautiful feeling of belonging to two places, or nowhere, as in "April 19" and "Meu Navegar", which says "look, I'm not from here / I didn't even intend to be / I just went for a walk to know/ where the body would go ".

In terms of sound, Nicola remains faithful to the most classic sound of MPB, with an emphasis on guitar arrangements and generous space for several instruments to shine - from drums to flute, from guitar to saxophone. At the same time, he updates this aesthetic bringing elements of folk and rock, in a mixture that at the same time reveres and reinvents, which makes his work descended from Gilberto Gil, Paralamas and Graveola himself.

Nicola Lemos is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and music producer.