Olho Lustroso

It may have taken de Abreu almost half a century to get around to recording two solo albums, but he’s making up for lost time — since 2018’s Contraduzindo, there’ve been two more mini-albums; Olho Lustroso is from the following year, and abstracts a song from Contraduzindo as its titular song and opening gambit. But the real surprises happen elsewhere, from the poetic instrumental MPB of “Ilhota,” to the slippery samba of “Perto de um Coração”, where de Abreu’s voice sounds like it’s been recorded on a cheap tape recorder, from across the other side of the room; the way it clashes with the pristine backing vocals is glorious. The centrepiece, though: the lovely fourteen-minute “Raso da Catarina,” a meandering duet for guitar and flute that’s as peaceable as it is quizzical.