Time is the fundamental element from which arises this project.
This idea of time revives an organic force that our thirsty for speed society gradually erases, which is the strength of building together, of adding each one’s rhythm to form something bigger than each individuality. And the time spent building and refining something together is called vivencia (experiencing together), an inseparable element of a capoeirista’s life.
The bateria in Capoeira comes exactly from this logic of vivencia, and the purpose of this project, born on top of moments playing together in rodas and at events, is to bring a baseline inspired by the set of atabaques in Candomblé, in the spirit of Mestre Ananias and his student’s teaching. It is to explore outside the classical berimbau toques and patterns, seeking to fit each one’s rhythm and variation in each other’s, looking together for a way to develop musical creativity.
In this context, it is no longer important to be the best player, but to develop the sensitivity and perception of what the other’s variation is calling for in the moment, to respond with the variation in the time that will reinforce the ensemble, through rhythm and body language.
This project also fits into the larger set of projects to enhance and develop musicality in capoeira, through live recordings, classes in various places in Europe and the world, daily training with the group in Athens, and a website that attempts to explain these musical processes through some courses built in this intuit. Naming each song came from a necessity to be able to remember the variation on top of the moment in the bateria while playing in the roda. From this naturally came the choice of Bantu words, insisting on the diasporic identity of capoeira and its relationship with candomblé.