Baal des Quat´z´arts

 

​

​

A BRAZILIAN CROSSOVER BAND UNDER MUSICAL DIRECTION BY OTACÍLIO MELGAÇO

​

​MEMBERS - O T A C Í L I O   M E L G A Ç O 

& GUESTS

                       

​"S o u n d s a n d (S u b d i) V i s i o n s"

Baal des Quat'z'arts is a resonant kaleidoscope. Rarely a multi-artist gets to accomplish such a cubist music! Sounds are projected of unexpected retreats, everything becomes a house of mirrors. In the creations of that band - the poet's words are justified in a deafening way, transcendent deafening originating from joy and (the axiom becomes unfailing): 'beauty is' really 'a joy forever...'

(Caio Campbell, Brazilian journalist)

 

"T h e S k e t c h o f a n I m p e r t i n e n t P r o l o g u e"

'I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I've known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.' The Langston's words echo in my mind when I try to describe Baal des Quat'z'arts and their creations... Pristine footprints towards unimaginable places... Baal is the name of a controversial divinity... Besides noises, silences, musical notes; Omar Khadji grafts paradoxes, symbolisms and palimpsestos in the womb of their music... If the divinity (that inspired a part of the band name) could come in this context, maybe would - plathian - alert us: 'I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions. Whatever I see, I swallow immediately. Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike I am not cruel, only truthful — The eye of a little god, four-cornered. Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.' Maybe passing through the compasses and over the steel points will go nothing except Baal des Quat'z'arts and Universe Drunks and To-morrow...

(O.M., artist and producer)

 

​ 

​"M e l t i n g P o p"

A'capella, acousmatic/tapemusic, acoustic, bluegrass, bossa nova, classic rock, classical, club, concrete, down-tempo, drum & bass, dub, electroacoustic, emo, flamenco, folk, folk rock, fusion, garage, glam, gothic, industrial, jazz, lounge, minimalist, pop, punk, post-punk, psychedelic, tango, trip hop, visual...: some styles embraced by the band....."When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st, so long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee... The smoke of my own breath; echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and vine; my respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing of blood and air throughmy lungs...: the baal music that flows inside and out of me." The nakedness of a petal - sometimes.. the mutation originating from the storms - other times... Le Quat'z'arts Cabaret! Founded in 1893 by François Trombert and located at 62 boulevard de Clichy , the Quat'z'Arts continued into the twentieth century the dynamic role of the Montmartre cabaret artistique, which had been initiated by Salis at the Chat Noir. Like the Chat Noir, the Quat'z'Arts provided an "alternative space" where both permanent and temporary exhibitions of works by artists such as Abel Truchet, Jules Grun, Charles Léandre, Guirand de Scévola, Adolphe Willette, Georges Redon, Emile Cohl, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The Quat'z'Arts also shared the Chat Noir's taste for eclectic interior design inspired by the past. Designed by Henri Pille, the "locale," one of the three rooms of the cabaret, was decorated in a pseudo-gothic, pseudo-Renaissance spirit, again recalling the Chat Noir. The second room, the "salle de café," was embellished with wood panels, bronze objects and statuettes, including a group of Rabelaisian figures. But the Quat'z'Arts cabaret took the interdisciplinary mixture of the arts, and the fraternal spirit between the artists and the audience, one step further, creating avant-garde collaborative performances that surpassed the genres seen at the Chat Noir. Named "fumistically" after the four disciplines of the Ecole des Beaux Arts architecture, painting, printmaking, and sculpture the Quat'z'Arts served not only as a gathering place for many artists, but also for composers, musicians, performers, poets, illustrators, and even established theater critics. Some of the regular performers at the Quat'z'Arts were discovered by Trombert, who launched their careers there. Also featured were well-known performers who had made their debuts at other cabarets like the Chat Noir. The Quat'z'Arts was still going strong in the early years of the twentieth century, attracting newcomers such as the young Spaniard, Pablo Picasso, and writers such as Apollinaire...and now the new key is in our hands...a new pitcher for a new wine... Welcome! to the sounds that snatch our bodies and souls Les copains affligés, les copines en pleurs, La boîte à dominos enfoui' sous les fleurs, Tout le monde équipé de sa tenu' de deuil, La farce était bien bonne et valait le coup d'ceil. Les Quat'z'arts avaient fait les choses comme il faut: l'enterrement paraissait officiel. Bravo! Le mort ne chantait pas: "Ah! C'qu'on's'emmerde ici!" il prenait son trépas à coeur, cette fois-ci . Et les bonsHomm's chargés de la levé' du corps Ne chantaient pas non plus "Saint-Eloi bande encor!" Les quat'z'arts avaient fait les choses comme il faut: Le macchabé' semblait tout à fait mort. Bravo! Ce n'étaient pas du tout des filles en tutu Avec des fesse' à claque' et des chapeaux pointus, Les commères choisi's pour les cordons du poêle, Et nul ne leur criait: "A poil! A poil! A poil!" Les quat'z'arts avaient fait les choses comme il faut: Les pleureuses sanglotaient pour de bon. Bravo! Le curé n'avait pas un goupillon factice Un de ces goupillons en forme de phallus Et quand il y alla de ses de profundis, L'enfant de chœur répliqua pas morpionibus. Les quat'z'arts avaient fait les choses comme il faut: Le curé venait pas de Camaret. Bravo! On descendit la bière et je fus bien déçu, La blague maintenant frisait le mauvais goût, Car le mort se laissa jeter la terr' dessus Sans lever le couvercle en s'écriant "Coucou!" Les quat'z'arts avaient fait les choses comme il faut: Le cercueil n'était pas à double fond. Bravo! Quand tout fut consommé, je leur ai dit: "Messieurs, Allons faire à présent la tourné' des boxons!" Mais ils m'ont regardé avec de pauvres yeux, Puis ils m'ont embrassé d'une étrange façon. Les quat'z'arts avaient fait les choses comme il faut: Leur compassion semblait venir du coeur. Bravo! quand je suis ressorti de ce champ de navets, l'obre de i'ici-git pas à pas me suivait, Une petite croix de trois fois rien du tout Faisant, à elle seul', de l'ombre un peu partout. Les quat'z'arts avaient fait les choses comme il faut: Les revenants s'en mêlaient à leur tour. Bravo! J'ai compris ma méprise un petit peu plus tard, Quand, allumant ma pipe avec le faire-part, J' m'aperçus que mon nom, comm' celui d'un bourgeois, Occupait sur la liste une place de choix: Les quat'z'arts avaient fait les choses comme il faut: J'étais le plus proch' parent du défunt. Bravo! Adieu! Les faux tibias, les crânes de carton… Plus de marche funèbre au son des mirlitons! Au grand bal des quat'z'arts nous n'irons plus danser, Les vrais enterrements viennent de commencer. Nous n'irons plus danser au grand bal des quat'z'arts, Viens, pépère, on va se ranger des corbillards!

(Omar Khadji/WW)

"L i n k s"

members / albums / mp3 / shows /

videography / iconography / cosmogony /

memorabilia / credits / orders/purchaces / contact

​

"A p p e n d i x"

´When Ismalia embraced madness / Exiled herself in the tower to dream out / She saw a moon in the sky / She saw a moon in the sea. / In a dream she lost herself / Bathing in the moonlight / Wanting to rise up to the sky / Wanted to go down the sea. / And as she started to rave, / she begins to sing / She was closer to the sky / She was further from the sea. / And like an angel, / she tilted her wings to fly / Wanted the moon from the sky / wanted the moon from the sea. / And the wings that God had given her / whirred pair to pair / Her soul rised the skies / Her body submerged the sea.´

(Alphonsus de Guimaraens, translating: Otacílio Melgaço

This poem "I s m á l i a" is dedicated - here - to B. des Q.)