Brazilian guitarist, songwriter and producer Guri Assis Brasil has issued a new album under the name Animal Invisível, a record that fuses 1970s Brazilian funk, soul and jazz with cinematic arrangements. The project draws on the Black Rio movement and features contributions from a wide circle of the country’s session and stage musicians.
Early Influences and Career Beginnings
Born in Santana do Livramento, a city that borders Rivera, Uruguay, Assis Brasil grew up absorbing Argentine and Brazilian rock, as well as cumbia from street vendors who moved between the two countries. “There’s a certain melancholy in the melodies that certainly comes from the music of Buenos Aires,” he said.
He began playing acoustic guitar and a large tom-tom drum at age nine, later picking up the guitar and briefly taking piano lessons. Largely self-taught, he never studied music theory.
From Pública to São Paulo
Assis Brasil’s first band to gain national attention was Pública, which won the MTV Video Music Brasil awards (VMB) for best alternative rock band in 2009. The group, part of the Gaucho rock scene but distinct from its humorous lyrical tradition, relocated to São Paulo the following year to reach a wider audience. “We saw that great national artists moved to São Paulo and after winning the VMB we saw that it was time,” he explained.
Collaborations and La Cumbia Negra
After the move, he worked as a session and stage musician for artists including Criolo, Céu and Luiz Melodia. He also joined La Cumbia Negra, an instrumental project conceived by producer Carlos Miranda that blended Latin and Brazilian rhythms. Assis Brasil recalled the project’s spontaneous start: while playing new songs with guitarist Gabriel Guedes, Miranda heard them, excitedly played a bottle in cumbia rhythm, and insisted on recording immediately. The group later cut an album live in Belo Horizonte.
Recording with Gal Costa
Among his many collaborations, Assis Brasil highlighted his guitar work on Gal Costa‘s album A Pele do Futuro. “I’ve always admired the guitarists who played with her, especially Lanny Gordin. When Pupillo asked me to record with him, I was stunned,” he said. He contributed what he believes is the album’s only guitar solo, an arrangement that earned praise from the producer.
Inside the Animal Invisível Album
The new album was largely tracked remotely during the pandemic, with musicians recording from their homes. Assis Brasil produced and arranged the material himself, though he values input from collaborators.
“I think music can’t be made alone, that’s not the purpose of music. Music brings people together, unites them.”
The album’s contributors include drummers Pupillo, Thomas Harres, Arquetipo Rafa and Big Rabello, and bassists Pedro Dantas and Meno del Picchia.
