The waiting has paid off: With only their second album Telebossa have succeeded where others often need a life’s work - namely the creation of their own musical language. While Chico Mello and Nicholas Bussmann were still exploring the Bossa tradition through role models such as Antonio Carlos Jobim, Caetano Veloso, and Joao Gilberto on their debut album from 2011, their mixture of Brazilian style elements and New Music has now become a model in its own right.

This time support has been provided by one of the greats: The wise old Van Dyke Parks who in the past has explored new horizons with Brian Wilson and Randy Newman, and now collaborates with such diverse artists as Joanna Newsom and Skrillex. “Discover America”, Van Dyke Parks’s mission statement from the 1960s (and the title of one of his rare solo albums), is now emblazoned on Telebossa’s flag: A testament to Bossa Nova’s “detour” through the USA which led to its inclusion in the canon of music history.

A new mode of expression and new instruments: Cello and guitar have disappeared from the Telebossa sound to be replaced by vocals and player piano. And throughout, it is Chico Mello’s delicate, fragile voice in the best Bossa Nova tradition which maintains the connection to the musical homeland of Brazil. However, the main theme of the album is also the classic conflict / cooperation between man and machine: A juxtaposition of the almost inhuman perfection of the woodwind ensemble “Aventure”, and Winfried Ritsch’s pleasantly warm piano robot, “Der Automat”, programmed with unprecedented delicacy by Bussmann. And in the middle of it, the singer Chico Mello alongside Nicholas Bussmann’s cool-technoid electronics.

The texts of the “metaphysical engineer” Fernando Pessoa, who described the entanglements of technology, metaphysics, and corporeality at the beginning of th.......
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