2 years after the release of his first solo album, Favorite Recordings proudly presents SOLAR, second album by acclaimed Brazilian composer Lucas Arruda.
Lucas Arruda’s born in 1983, in a Brazilian state called Espírito Santo, near Rio de Janeiro. Coming from a musical family (his dad and older brother are musicians) he started playing and listening to music very young. At the age of 13, he was also playing professionally already. After studying electric guitar and playing in various bands, Lucas passion quickly turned into Rhodes and keyboards, expanding his musical range of skills.
At the same time he started his own home-studio and a real musical career in Brazil, playing and producing for various projects with his older brother Thiago, and gaining great local support from people like Ed Motta, William Magalhães (Banda Black Rio), Robert Lamm (Chicago) or Hyldon (Brazilian soul legend).
In 2012, Fabricio Di Monaco (from Modo Solar) introduced Lucas’ music to Favorite Recordings’ head honcho, Pascal Rioux, who was immediately seduced by Lucas’ demos and talent. One year after, Favorite Recordings released Lucas Arruda’s first solo album titled Sambadi, and received great supports from many international DJs and media, who all acclaimed Lucas’ natural skills for composition and arrangement.
Following this successful first effort, here comes SOLAR, new and second solo album by Lucas Arruda. Pursuing the sound established with Sambadi, this new project is again fully composed by Lucas, and filled with his fusion style, mixing influences and elements from his Latin musical background, with his genuine admiration for Jazz, Soul and Funk music
; On “Melt the Night” for example, Lucas asked legendary producer Leon Ware for his help, reminding his collaborations in the 80s with Marcos Valle, when they perfectly merged together the sophisticated Boogie and AOR touch from California, with the blazing sense of rhythm from Brazil. For “Uma Onda”, he invites Alex Malheiros, bassist of the famous Jazz band Azymuth, for a splendid tribute to their specific fusion sound and influence on the Brazilian music scene. Finally the song “Agua”, co-written with his longtime friend Fabricio Di Monaco, is a beautiful ballad which illustrates perfectly Lucas’ passion for Soul music stars such as Stevie Wonder or Curtis Mayfield.
On top of these great collaborations and a few more surprises, SOLAR also differs from its predecessor by a lot more elaborated production process, offering an authentic and warm sound, faithful to Lucas’ heroes and inspirations. Mostly recorded at Sala A Studio in Brazil, many drums parts were also taken at the fully analog Ambience Studios in Finland, by label mate drummer Jarkko Lepisto. The entire mix was also done in Finland on a Neve 8108 console from 1978, and under the direction of Andre Solomko and Petri Asiala, using only analogic technology and a Studer master tape to record the final pre-master.
The result is a timeless album, which should definitely established Lucas Arruda as one of the greatest and most talented Brazilian musicians these days.
SOLAR will be released as a deluxe gatefold double LP and limited CD edition on May 4th 2015.
