“Carimbó is the forest standing tall.” The popular expression in some communities of the Amazon defines well a music that sings the animals, the rivers, and the forest. The rhythm is one of the protagonists of the short film “Tones of the Amazon,” produced by Arapyaú, which listened to the sounds and voices of various artists from the territory.
With its engaging beats and deep roots, carimbó, maracatu, lambada, and other rhythms are a living example of how culture can be a powerful force to unite people, preserve traditions, and inspire new ways of living in harmony with nature. “Music is, necessarily, the defense of the Amazon,” says Déia Palheta, musical director of the musical theater group Pássaro Ararajuba, in Belém (PA), an artistic and environmental education manifestation.
“The forest needs to be seen with more responsibility. Music has the role of keeping the Amazon alive,” adds Manoel Cordeiro, musician, composer, and producer. He emphasizes that this artistic expression allows the peoples of the forest to be protagonists of their own story.
The same happens in the biome where the history of Brazil began, the Atlantic Forest, with forests, people, and a sonority full of life, bridging with other territories, especially the Amazon, as shown in the short film “From the Atlantic Forest to the World,” also by Arapyaú. It is there that Seu Matuto, a performer from Serra Grande (BA), enters nature singing the songs of caboclo and where Seu Lito, from the same city, keeps alive the tradition of quadrilles.
“I want to be a lit candle and I will shine forever,” sings Dona Val, singer and composer from Salobrinho (BA). She, who lived for years on a cocoa farm, learned the songs that the workers sang to ease the burden of work. They are “country songs, laundry songs,” as she defines them, and today they reach more ears thanks to the band Mulheres em Domínio Público, from Ilhéus (BA).
From boi-bumbá to samba de roda, from xote to tecnobrega, the rhythms of the forests are cultural expressions that mix elements of indigenous, African, and European traditions, a cultural richness that mirrors the biodiversity of the Atlantic Forest and the Amazon.
Together with “Among Forests,” released in December, the two audiovisual shorts are part of a series of three mini documentaries that celebrate the richness of each territory, with its particularities and similarities, in a colorful and diverse cultural exchange that reinforces the deep relationship between the two biomes, their people, and all of us.
