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ARTIST
TITLE
SOL
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
CC 025CD CC 025CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
6/12/2026

For his sixth solo album, Ezéchiel Pailhès returns with a new collection of songs infused by a sunny wandering spirit. Within each of the twelve songs on SOL is a thread of melancholic happiness that has permeated much of Pailhès' music and songwriting. He addresses love, the passing of time, hope, lost illusions, fleeting moments of grace, the temptation of forgetting, a need to escape, and desire. All this is insulated by understated orchestrations that blend acoustic and electronic instrumentation with deft confidence. The Portuguese and Brazilian concept of saudade -- a form of melancholic longing and nostalgia -- pervades, thanks in part to Pailhès decision to record the album in Rio de Janiero and to reinterpret some of the finest works of Música Popular Brasileira (MPB). In particular, he revisits a handful of lesser-known classics from the mid-century samba and bossa nova era -- originally written or performed by talents including Vinícius de Moraes, João Gilberto, Tom Zé, Dorival Caymmi, João Donato, Os Tincoãs, and Ataulfo Alves. The shift from Brazilian Portuguese to French and the decision to adapt rather than perform a straight-forward cover versions, allows Pailhès to invent a form of prosody and euphony that feels vibrant and unlike anything else in today's French chanson landscape. The French artist was keen to avoid cliché. Each song is therefore built around a carefully balanced interplay between Pailhès' piano and synthesizers, alongside restrained arrangements of percussion, brass, bass, and cavaquinho (a small four-string plucked guitar). These parts were recorded in Rio de Janeiro with two musicians who regularly perform alongside the legendary Caetano Veloso -- Kainã Do Jêje and Alberto Continentino -- joined by Thomas Harres, Antônio Neves, Eduardo Neves, and Gabriel Loddo. With SOL, Ezéchiel Pailhès reinvents this rich Franco-Brazilian musical legacy, bringing to it a personality and modernity that stand confidently alongside those of his forbears.