With most of us knee-deep in the dog days of summer, I thought I’d do something different. I think now’s the time to keep things brief and breezy. And to do so, I’ll give myself a lighter touch to focus on some of my favorite music that’s similarly “in between,” as it does on Mônica, Carla Vallet, and Osny Melo’s MERV.
Released in 1997 on Apical Records, a sublabel of the slightly mysterious Japanese indie label Samson Records, MERV collected the unique work of three expatriates who found their musical voice and footing in the land of the rising sun. Perfect for enjoying a spritz out on your balcony or soundtracking a beach outing, MERV captures ideas that blend the UK’s acid jazz and downtempo scene with Brazil’s post-bossa nova sound realigning itself with the era’s hip-hop and contemporary R&B influences.
The big name, if one can pick one out of the group, was one Osny Melo. Osny Melo is a Brazilian producer and multi-instrumentalist who fell in love with Japan and settled there in the ’80s, going on to produce and create music for huge Japanese musicians like Yasuko Agawa and Akina Nakamori before signing with Tokyo’s Fun House to release his own music in the early ’90s, music that sounded like a fusion of Brazilian saudade songcraft with Japanese electronically-tinged urban pop music.
Of the two other names, Carla Vallet, who also makes a memorable appearance on Kensho Abe’s a.k.deux, stands out for how many twists and turns her career took to get here. Before she came to Japan, Carla had a somewhat successful career as a multilingual model and actress, taking her from her birthplace in Madrid to Paris and New York City. It was in New York City that she studied music under the great bassist Ron Carter. However, when she first came to Japan, it was to work as an educator, having majored in Asian and English studies. Eventually, something else won out, and it was her love of music that led her to take up the opportunity to pursue a solo signing with Nippon Columbia’s Interface label, releasing her debut, Sweet Nostalgia, just a year prior to MERV‘s release.
Mônica Freire, the Mônica of MERV, took a similar path to her compatriot Osny. A native of Itabuna, Bahia, in search of new influences and experiences, she traversed the Caribbean, then Europe and Montreal, before finding her musical roots in Japan, where she found a record company receptive to her musical ideas blending the music of Bahia with electronics. Under Samson and Apical Records, she’d work with Osny Melo to create her two self-titled records by the time of this compilation’s release.
A masterclass of Osny Melo’s evolving production and musical work, every moment of MERV features shades of how much territory he could cover based on the singer’s leaning. The opening track, “Waiting Since Forever,” or songs like “Sempre Voce (Into the Night),” give you an idea of Carla’s influences, which are more understated and elegant, touching on groups like Everything But The Girl and the bubbling Brazilian ambient jungle scene.
Osny’s own samba-centered music, like “Carioca” and “Exotica,” takes on wickedly impressive detours into electronic dancehall, acid jazz, and techno blends that update ideas he couldn’t pursue after his solo career ended in 1993. Mônica’s own tracks, like the floating “Feito Para Amar” and “Di Fato,” pair the musicality of her large Jobim influences with gorgeous atmospheric downtempo touches unique to this album. Mônica and Osny’s cover of Sade’s “Smooth Operator” finds new corners for the classic, cranking up its quicksilver moodiness and giving MERV the chef’s kiss necessary to call this a must-hear, in my humble opinion.
“In the end, I’m in total agreement with the final words Osny graced us with in the liner notes:
Good music will never die or disappear.
Between all the garbage being made and played around the world.
There will always be a space for real music and musicians for new experiences using in various ways this blessed talent.”
This love letter and thank-you from these artists to their adopted home at the time still feels and sounds like a breath of fresh air.
