Jocy De Oliveira

Jocy de Oliveira is a Brazilian pianist and composer. Her career displays the rich discourse that most of Latin American has had over the last century within local paradigms of avant-garde music, and with its international community. As a concert pianist she worked with Cage and Stravinsky, had works composed for her by Xenakis, Berio and Santoro, and her extensive recordings of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux are generally regarded as the definitive version. Though I had been aware of her wonderful Messiaen recording for a number of years, I must admit I didn’t take full stock of her talents until I discovered Estórias Para Voz, Instrumentos Acústicos e Eletrônicos when it was issued as part of the Creel Pone series. The album is a masterpiece. Easily one of the greatest electroacoustic records ever made, and so rare that a decade spent desperately hunting for a copy has turned up nothing. It occupies one of the most coveted spots on my want list. The album is stunningly beautiful. Built from synthesizer drones and pulses, electroacoustic, instrumental, and non-instrumental sound, and some of the most incredible vocal work I can call to mind, it is a totally singular work. It is tense, confrontational, and intimate – displaying a masterful understanding of acoustic relationships. I have no idea if she ever returned to the territory, but I hope that she did and there is more to discover.

Estórias Para Voz, Instrumentos Acústicos e Eletrônicos (Fermata Indústria Fonográfica ltda.) 1981