Secret Spotify: Comunhão by Nelson Angelo e Joyce

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Jochan Embley30 March 2020

Secret Spotify is our weekly series delving into the outer reaches of the streaming service. Every Monday, we unearth a hidden gem — each with no more than 50,000 plays — and tell you the story behind the music. With all of us staying indoors for a while yet, we'll have plenty of time to discover new music — hopefully these tracks can set you off in the right direction.​

This week, it's Comunhão by Nelson Angelo e Joyce.

As Nelson Angelo and Joyce Silveira Palhano de Jesus began to record an album in 1972, the Brazilian music scene was coming to the end of an incendiary period.

In the late 1960s, a tidal wave of radical music, art, literature and more — broadly referred to as tropicália — had swept through the country, enraging the nation’s hardline government but enlivening its artists. Both Angelo and Joyce (as she was known professionally) were involved in the movement. Angelo played guitar as part of Clube da Esquina, a leading collective of the scene helmed by Milton Nascimento. Joyce wrote many of her own songs, but also sang those written by the likes of Caetano Veloso, a tropicália titan who, after being exiled for his art, would eventually return to Brazil to become one of its biggest musical stars.

Angelo and Joyce met when they toured as part of the group A Sagrada Familía and, in 1970, formed another band called A Tribo. Their connection was more than just musical though — around that same time, they got married and had two daughters.

All that history feeds into the incredible album they wrote together in 1972, simply called Nelson Angelo Y Joyce. It’s a confluence of the various threads of tropicália: sensual, deeply grooved, with otherworldly melodies and dashings of psychedelia. The track Comunhão is a stand-out, with the duo’s serene, oscillating vocals fluttering over an acoustic guitar. It’s intoxicating, and the various plops of percussion and avian whistles in the background strengthen the brew.

The whole album has a dreamlike quality to it, but it would seem that both artists soon awoke from the reverie. By 1975, they had separated both musically and romantically, embarking on their own paths. Angelo is still releasing music to this day, and Joyce went on to become an international touring artist. She gained a new lease of popularity in the 90s, when Brazilophile DJs such as Gilles Peterson began playing her tracks in London clubs.

It probably has something to do with why Nelson Angelo e Joyce is so hard to come by on vinyl now. It’s been reissued a few times, but even those are snapped up pretty much immediately by those in the know. An original pressing from 1972 is worth its weight in gold — there’s currently one going for more than £700 on the online vinyl marketplace Discogs.

Fortunately, the album is also on Spotify, and with each song currently on less than 50,000 streams, we think it’s time more people knew about it.

Once you’ve made your way through this album, delve back into the tropicalia era to find more music made in a similar vein. To get you started, we’d highly recommend Gal Costa’s self-titled album (1969), Caetano Veloso’s second self-titled album (1969) and Clube da Esquina by Milton Nascimento and Lo Bôrges (1972), on which Angelo plays guitar.

Listen to Comunhãoby Nelson Angelo e Joyce on Spotify:

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