Mansinha is not a word that doesn’t exist. There is a translation: meek. Mansa, meek (f) / Manso, meek (m). The difference is the addition of -inha, transforming the State of Being meek in a diminished word that carries a whole construction of one’s brain when one is born in such land, Brazil, which is a specific kind of existence that necessarily needs the temperature, warmth, water, language, rhythms, insects, sun, costumes, culture that Brazil has.
São Paulo, São Paulo – 07/03/2022
This feeling has many faces, many perspectives. This Lumanzin album is a great opportunity for you to get to know it a bit.
Listen to / Pre-Save ‘ Mansinha ’ here: https://sono.to/mansinha
“Mansinha” comes right after “quarentena”, the first Lumanzin album, but this time, Mansinha brings the relief the artist needed after such a hard time. Who was there knows that “quarentena” talked about abortion, self-isolation (before covid), dealing with time, healing one-self. It has darker sounds, more notes that shock each other, more guilty, more fear. “Mansinha” comes to break this cycle and to introduce the light and the beauty that “quarentena” was healing us for.
“Mansinha” brings the beauty of vocals, acoustic guitar, and percussion to the shore. It was recorded mainly in Florianópolis – Brazil, but had recording sessions in Borsh (Albania) and London (UK). It’s full of acoustic guitar. Actually, it has no electronic instrument or element at all. Even on the track “Até aquelas”, the percussive sounds that seem to be made with a machine, were recorded with an old fridge the artist had in her wood house during 2020. Lumanzin invited over 22 participants for the album and gave complete freedom for them to create. She likes to highlight that “fim do mundo”, for example, started with her sending only with a vocal track and a metronome. When Pedro Germer received the track, he inserted his own characteristics and vision. All of the participants did that.
Mansinha is about contemplation, dealing fine with the observation of life and existence. Is realizing the little things that are alive walking on this Earth and being able to look ahead calmly.
As always, the songs were improvised. Lu always said that once a feeling finally sinks in her heart, then all she has to do is to open her mouth. She always writes with lyrics and sometimes with the guitar at the same time, but all she does is lyrics-based. The music has to follow the flow of the words, the compasses have to fit perfectly the idea. That’s also why, if you pay attention, many of her songs have compound bars.
Funny thing is that the whole scenario and colors that Lu thought of for the album, she found in Albania. She got out of Brazil in February 2021 to the unknown with a one-way flight ticket to Albania and there she found the perfect blue, the clean water, the dark green, the free animals, the endless time, and the contemplation. She lived in a small village called Borsh in the south of the country and that experience just made her believe that things were flowing exactly how they should.
But this is another story… A good one though. Not many Brazilians speak Albania, but now she takes these and other experiences she had to keep opening the doors on this long hallway that is life. This album will for sure be a great way for the world to get to know her better and a great way for Lumanzin and other artists to collaborate on the stage. Since the main concept and idea of the album is to give freedom to those who perform, Lu wants to keep inviting different people from different places to add their own expression into the song.
“Mansinha” is out. Lumanzin is out there. Listen to it, because for sure you might bump into her at some point.
Lumanzin commented: “”Mansinha” is my most complete work so far. I fulfilled a dream of having – a small part of – people I really admire and trust working with me. The biggest challenge was for sure recording by distance, because of the pandemic, but I couldn’t be happier with the results. I proposed the idea, sent very raw files and people came up with things that sound like them. Like their intimacy. This album came as a relief after many endings, so I and this piece were (re)born together. I wanted to make something that sounded beautiful, complete. Something that is complex, but can easily reach everyone’s heart. Even though I sing in Portuguese until now, the sound must be capable of touching people who can’t understand what I’m saying. And the lyrics are awesome as well, by the way.
I’ll use this album as the perfect excuse to keep doing something that I’ve been doing for the past 3 years, that is to build an international career. Now that I’ve been to more places and established a good network and partnerships in London mainly, I feel like I have enough experiences and languages that I speak/understand to be able to invite pretty much anyone to collaborate. I feel that now I am ready to become big, to be big, to be everywhere. Now I’m healthy, now I made my mistakes and learned from them. I played in festivals, small, big venues, my songs, other people’s songs, in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Albanian… All I’m interested in is to do a great job, to be happy with my music, that people that work with me are happy as well, to be able to perform awesome concerts, and keep delivering high-quality material to the world. We need art and I can’t think about anything else to do.“.
Artist Bio
The world should know, and depending on her constant enchanting movement, they will. Lumanzin is a Brazilian musician and visual artist. She has a great range of things she does.
Her first professional musical release was in 2016, the ep “ABUSOS” produced by Pedro Serapicos. This ep was the first big open door in her artistic career. Some of the main projects she participated and participates are: Part of “Here Are Girls”, an experimental improvised music trio with Mahsa Salali (Iran) and Roxanna Abayati (Iraq); Dan Parties and The Immigrant army, a group from London where she plays electronics and sings; Luzia, a jazz-pop band which she produced and performed; Amanajé, a group of ragga/sound system which she performed as backing vocal; UAU Band, an experimental band funded by Lisa Schonberg, with whom she recorded a piece for 4 drummers and ants sounds samples, and the Lumanzin itself achievements, performing in many countries like Brazil, Portugal, England, Albania and Greece, releasing a lot of music, exhibiting digital art internationally, and participating in other people projects.
In addition to music, Lumanzin has also held several visual art and video art exhibitions in Europe and Brazil, with the biggest highlights: the video “Meia Noite em Vênus”, for which he made the soundtrack, with direction and script by Maria Olivia aporia exhibited and awarded in Portugal by ART Veine; artist-in-residence at Xepa Galeria, a Brazilian gallery of NFT; attended Banff Centre (CAN) and Can Serrat (ESP) art residencies in 2018 and 2021 respectively; online exhibition at Utsanga.it, an Italian online magazine.
EN 
IT