The Duo Lambada da Serpente , formed by Son Andrade (percussion) and Ramiro Galas (keyboardists), will release their first self-titled EP on August 28th, bringing to the public a sound dubbed “Futuristic Latin American Music.” The work blends traditional Amazonian elements—such as carimbó, lambada/guitarrada, and brega—with Northeastern genres like forró and baião, in dialogue with Latin influences ranging from salsa to mambo. The result is a vibrant, modern, and danceable work that reaffirms the importance of the cultural connection between Brazil and Latin America.
You mention that the project is an invitation to “deepen Brazil’s connection with Latin America.” How does this vision translate into your music and how you view the current cultural landscape?
We believe that by blending cultures resulting from the interaction between peoples of the African diaspora and indigenous Latin American peoples, we tighten the cultural bond that unites Brazil and Latin America. In practice, we blend cumbia with ijexá, baião with champeta, traditional Andean rhythms with coco and carimbó. All of this in a format that flirts with dub, soundsystem culture, and dance music. We have this anthropological view of current culture; this blend is the music of the future.
Your sound combines carimbó, lambada, forró, baião, and many other rhythms. What was the process of selecting and balancing these influences to create something that sounded modern while respecting your roots?
In fact, we’re careful not to mix everything into a single song. After all, the tempos, accents, and scales of these genres are relatively similar. Our intention is to blend without losing the source material. We want to invent a future that values these rhythms, forged from the wisdom of masters of popular culture, combined with the contemporary sounds and technologies of electronic music.
The term you use to define your sound—”Futuristic Latin American Music”—is very powerful. What does being futuristic mean to you within a genre steeped in tradition?
Chico Science once said that “the future is now, wait a minute, it’s here.” That’s more or less it: we produce music with the resources we have in the “present,” keeping an eye on the traditions and lessons of a cultural “past,” pointing to a possible aesthetic and everyday “future” in which Brazil and Latin America begin to understand each other better.
The EP “Lambada da Serpente” marks the digital birth of your work. What was the biggest challenge in transforming the project from stages and parties to recording?
All musical production involves defining a creative process. Ours, from the outset, was marked by the intense interaction between what was produced in the studio and what was improvised live. Thus, every “happy accident” that happened on stage ended up in the recording, and every good studio idea we took to the stage, and so we continued in this loop.
You work with computers, synthesizers, and organic instruments. How do you balance the technological and artisanal aspects when producing tracks?
The balance comes from research and expertise gained from years of work and research by each of us. We are producers and musicians, and our personal tastes share a certain revolutionary alchemy. Thus, combining electronic and organic sounds flows very naturally.
Do you see your music as a political act or an act of resistance? What role do you see art playing in times of social and political uncertainty?
Music speaks through content and form. In content, the music we play is a blend of existence and resistance from living peoples and cultures, survivors of a perverse colonizing system. In form, we embrace modernist cannibalism, the 1970s’ debauchery, the dance floor of electronic music, and 21st-century technologies… So, we want decolonial music from the global South.
Your work was born on stage and at parties. How does audience reaction influence the way you compose and design your arrangements?
On the dance floor, we improvise and test out what’s already been produced. In the studio, we take note of what works on the dance floor and with the audience, and apply it to our arrangements.
The EP’s release is just the beginning. What can we expect from Lambada da Serpente in the coming months? Are there any plans for touring, collaborations, or new sonic experiments?
We now want to tour this album in Brazil and Latin America, presenting our show live and promoting our music. But since the future is very close, we’ve already started songs for a new album, are partnering with artists from Pará, Brasília, São Paulo, Piauí, Brazil, and abroad, and have some remixes and singles in the works.
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