doSul

Manus on guitar and Niza on vocals form the heart of this chill, downtempo, and Brazilian-electronic ensemble. When I discovered their music around the turn of the millenium they were living in the Koreatown of Los Angeles... then they hosted world music jams and shot a music video while based in Pasadena, California... rumor has them living in Florida somewhere now. They travelled and toured a lot for a while, particularly in Europe. Manus loves hanging out in major airports, not just people-watching but listening too, and generally enjoying the mix of cultures, rhythms of life, etc.

. okay, it's intriguing and inspiring if you hear him describe it.

Their eponymous first album (doSul, aka "Silhouette", from the dichromatic profile of Niza's lovely face on the cover) is a lilting, gently-flowing river of warmth, sometimes sparkling with joy and contentment ("Mango Tree"), sometimes yearning that makes your heart ache ("Dreams"), but like Brazil's mysterious Amazon, ALWAYS deep with meaning. That is, every song has more to it beneath the surface. This is true melodically (listen for the subtleties- the fretless bass lines in particular) and lyrically (even "Mango Tree", arguably the least subtle lyrics in the bunch, may surprise you if you pay attention).

Manus (aka Alex McManus) wrote all the songs and laid down some of the guitar tracks. Niza sings them all, with background help from a mysterious man named "Fau". Marcus Gerakos plays guitar, Tony Green plays bass that makes your face contort with longing, and Tony Shogren -the Other Tony- handles the drums and Brazilian percussion beautifully. James Faulkner and Michael McManus (son of Manus & Niza) take expert care of the keyboards and drum loops throughout the album.

On this album they are joined by their good friend, artist, and ambient-music composer Dominic Massaro (Graffiti61), who also happens to play a helluva bass himself (look for his name as studio musician on others' albums). Here Dominic plays synthesizer, just as expertly and subtly as every other musician on this album.

Check out the rest of the tracks on this album at officialsite]//cdbaby.com/cd/dosul[/officialsite].

Dominic Massaro's music can be found at www.myspace.com/graffiti61music, and he has a blog at www.xanga.com/graffiti61.

No known blog for doSul yet, but now The Secret is Out... ;-)