O Terno Reissue from Psychic Hotline
April 3, 2024 - By Psychic Hotline
Psychic Hotline is making O Terno’s 2019 DIY masterpiece of modern Brazilian pop, <atrás/além>, widely available on vinyl for the first time. A limited domestic vinyl pressing evaporated instantly, necessitating this essential Psychic Hotline pressing and an opportunity to introduce O Terno to a wider audience with their fourth and finest album yet . . . <atrás/além>.
Order <atrás/além> Here
<atrás/além> is the sound of three friends bursting with creativity, tempered with a decade of experience and maturation. “We were in a moment where we thought, we don’t have to be a rock band, or an indie band, or a Brazilian band,” Tim Bernardes explains. “We can just be three producers that have these songs and we want to give the songs our own personalities in an album that talks a lot about ourselves.”
At its core the band is made up of Tim Bernardes (lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and piano player), Guilherme “Peixe” D’Almeida (bass) and Gabriel “Biel” Basile (drums), with Bernardes stepping forward to mix this record as well as composing and arranging <atrás/além>’s orchestral elements. Bernardes’ arrangements are far from ornamentation; as if anticipating a glorious sunrise, “Tudo Que Eu Não Fiz” introduces the album floating on a growing swell of trumpets and violins before adding bursts of energy during the song’s ecstatic emotional transitions. These musical supporting actors combined with Bernardes’ superb songwriting evokes a timeless quality shared with the best pop songs.
At the time of its original release in 2019, the band occupied a revered position revolving around a loose collective of musicians (including Ana Frango Elétrico & Sessa) recording at the independent recording studio RISCO in Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo. Their previous album, 2016’s Melhor Do Que Parece set a new bar for indie rock critically, in terms of popularity as well as production quality. Informally crowned the leaders of Brazil’s “alternative rock” scene, they made TV appearances and accepted invitations to perform and record with musical heroes (Tom Zé, Gal Costa, Arnaldo Antunes & Nando Reis). And then in 2017, Tim Bernardes released his first solo album, 2017’s Recomeçar, a lush and melancholic sonic departure towards orchestral folk that introduced some dramatic tension for feverish fan debates about the band’s long term viability. In fact, many of <atrás/além> and Recomeçar’s songs were written at the same time and landed on their respective albums according to Bernardes’ creative countenance at the time.
