Katia B

by Adriana Calcanhotto

Katia B is an artist whose trajectory I love to accompany, for many reasons. Because she's talented, of course, but also because she has a completely own mood and most of all because she's permeable and transparent. With this I mean to say that Katia B, unlike many people, doesn't hide the influences she endured, on the contrary, she puts them on display, without veils. From the more physically present influences, like those of the authors, musical partners, musicians and producers whom she works and incorporates with, to those a little more distant, like the voices of the singers that she heard (and which drove her to indulge herself in to music), passing by the contemporary vocals of Bebel Gilberto; they always appear like a dialog and not as a shadow. She allows herself to be influenced; she has no fear of being transformed, and was always like that.

The choices she made for this 'Espacial' - to begin with the title, great for an album - are all like that, very clear, thus exposing herself instead of sheltering or protecting herself, which in my eyes already installs her in a privileged position, regarding the establishment of her universe for the listener. And, "a change that begins", is what these choices seem to want to say concerning this specific moment of her trajectory.

Her troop of co-workers is most special, and she mingles with them in a personal and organic way, which maybe is one of the secrets of the warmth of the album; after all, these are not people she found in any project; actually all are in one way or another authors, and it's exactly what Katia B looks for and finds; the complicity and the creators' input is plainly admirable. Because of all this, of the quality of the joining very talented persons, 'Espacial' is loaded with sensitivity and spontaneous moments, incorporated and registered, for our delight. The intensity with which she interprets the impressive "Destiny (be my friend)" is touching, in both times it appears on the cd; once in a production of the creative Marcos Cunha, and the other one (in which the cool howl of Vitor Ramil makes you shiver) in her own production. And all this outburst of great musical quality, technique and high voltage affection, supports a refined and articulated singing, dense phrasing and relaxed in an airy voice, a true delicacy.

Thus - changeable, andante, but above all transparent - when she says "mas eu sigo indo" ( I keep on going, in another pearl of the same Vitor Ramil, "Viajei") or (when in "Mundo Grande" in partnership with Suely Mesquita) she says "quero ver o que eu encontro depois que passar do ponto que daqui dá pra enxergar" (I want to find out what there is after the point that I see from here), is quite what she's wanting to say.

Don't miss it.

Adriana Calcanhotto