FABIANO DO NASCIMENTO & E RUSCHA V - Aquáticos

Spring hasn't arrived yet, but the notes of guitarist Fabiano do Nascimento and ambient artist E Ruscha V are already warming things up. The two musicians, based in Los Angeles, craft forty slow, contemplative minutes for Music From Memory: an ode to relaxation built on soft synth textures and drum patterns with a delicate nu-jazz touch. A textbook chillout work, made of gentle reverbs and melodies as light as an equatorial breeze.

On this drift, do Nascimento floats along with his forays on seven-string acoustic guitar, a legacy of the choro tradition and the Afro-samba roots he has always absorbed and reworked. It's territory already explored on solo works like "Dança dos tempos" (2015), an exhilarating samba-jazz triumph with a beguiling warmth. Here, though, E Ruscha V's signature seems to take over, with his laid-back downtempo, at times a little too accommodating. In several passages the synthetic architecture ends up containing the guitarist's flair within interesting but not particularly risky coordinates.

There's no shortage of standout moments, yet the sense remains of potential held in check. The best stretches emerge when the duo strays from the balearic beat and tries to push things further: that's the case with "Bio", where the absence of the kick leaves room for a livelier dialogue between electronic matter and strings. The producer's work shines for its timbral care, with modular synthesizer and vintage keyboards front and center, but the constant, if understated, presence of rhythm often ends up flattening the whole into sameness. What results is a piece of stillness and shifting vibrations, though a bit too glossy in the long run

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26/02/2026