Album Notes

BAMBOO SHADOWS: Brazilian-born and internationally acclaimed artist, composer and producer Mario Vaz De Mello's debut CD. The provocative blend of Latin heritage and Electronic Contemporary compositions combines pop, traditional classical, and techno influences with Vaz De Mello's extensive experience composing and performing instrumental scores for television, theater and dance. With its varied sound textures and singular musical personality, BAMBOO SHADOWS represents a new contemporary attitude in electronic music. Carrying a genuine and unique multi-ethnic charisma, Vaz De Mello's musical architecture -- overflowing with endless and inspiring visual suggestions -- breaks new musical ground.

From Ipanema to the East Village: Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Mario Vaz De Mello traded in his surfboard for a piano while still a teenager and began composing original music for theater, dance and television. To date Vaz De Mello has scored more than sixty different international productions and his music has been continuously performed in Europe, Latin America and the United States. With his debut album, BAMBOO SHADOWS, for New York City-based VMA Records, Mario Vaz De Mello -- who nowadays lives in New York -- has established himself as one of the most innovative artists to have stepped into the world of electronic / soundtrack music.


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"Somewhere in the zone between ambient, world music, and prog new age, De Mello's tasty production is full of atmospheric moments and haunting unresolved chord progressions. Though he's originally from Brazil, 'Bamboo Shadows' is as far from bossa nova as it is from disco. The sparse, echoing percussion in 'Yellow Bikes' sounds almost symphonic, and the sampled voices over simple string synth chords in 'Naam, Acrylic & Iron Wings' remind me of Laurie Anderson..."
- KEYBOARD Magazine