Kassin

I can proudly say that this gig was booked and organized by me. It was a bit of a coincidence and a bit of luck. My Dad met his old friend, a drummer Macio Moretti at a concert in Warsaw in October and he told him that he’s going on a tour with a band soon, but they have a quite long gap in between concerts. They had already a gig booked in Stockholm, at Fasching, and four days later in Malmö, and then Alice, Copenhagen. Well, my Dad thought I could help with adding one more gig, so I got in touch with Macio. If there was Stockholm and Copenhagen, there must have been a gig in the capital of Norway, right? Despite short notice, I luckily managed to find a free date at one of my favourite clubs in Oslo – Kafe Hærverk.

If you haven’t heard about Kassin before, here’s what you should know: Kassin is a hugely influential Brazilian producer and musician. He has been and still is a member of numerous projects, such as The +2’s (with Moreno Veloso and Domenico Lancelotti), Orqestra Imperial or Cometa. He produced albums for Los Hermanos, Gal Costa, Bebel Gilberto, Erasmo Carlos, On Filmore, Caetano Veloso… He even scored a soundtrack for Japanese anime series Michiko & Hatchin! But this post is about his latest album “Relax” (released in 2018 via Luaka Bop) and its promotion on the European Tour 2019. This project brings some beautiful tunes of relaxed anxiety, it’s gripping, heart-breaking (if you understand the lyrics) but it will also make you dance, or at least balter to the Latin rythms. On this relaxed tour Kassin brought his lifetime friends from Poland – Macio Moretti on drums, Piotr Zabrodzki on keys (together also known as a backwards-music duo LXMP) and Piotr Domagalski on bass. Here’s a short recap of our adventure in Oslo:

Touring in a huge van, like a rockstar band, Kassin and co. came to Oslo straight from a successful gig at Fasching club in Stockholm. We’ve met at Hærverk for the soundcheck. Everything went smoothly and slowly and the band was checking out the venue and trying out the equipment – when Piotr and Piotr saw a piano in the corner, they immediately started to joke around and play cheerful jingles. The idea of using the acoustic piano at the show came up and it turned out to be excellent! Here are some pics proving how hard guys were preparing for the gig:

After the soundcheck and a long proctrastination at the nearest Indian place, we’ve headed to Kafe Hærverk for the show. As a warm up, we got electric and hilarious (in a very positive way) performance of Casa Electro Novo. He literally took us on a trip to space, put on different pairs of glasses on each song, danced on the bar and did a cartwheel in the middle of Hærverk dancefloor. In addition he played all the music by himself, catchy beats, which you cannot stand still to, together with interesting lyrics – all of this out of one suitcase (not without a reason he calls himself One Man Electro-Trash performance out of a suitcase).

Casa Electro Novo left the stage with standing ovations from the audience, which was all cheered up and ready to give a warm welcome to Kassin. He also left like 3 pairs of glasses, and guys liked them so much, that we got a quick photoshoot before the gig (or maybe it was after?), and then they went up on stage and never took them off. With a serious looks on their faces, but not so serious glasses and relaxed attitude, they gave us an amazing performance. Macio, Piotr and Piotr showed their superpowers and proved that Polish gang rocks any genre. Or a mix of them. Amazingly skilled Piotras Zabrodzki was sweeping out on keys and shouting from the other corner of the stage, to Macio, that he played the wrong song. Macio apologized, everything went back to normal and they started again. They’ve presented Brazilian-Polish heart, with unique arrangements within dark bossa, latin rhythms, pop and a bit of humor. A perfect Sunday evening for lyrics you don’t quite understand, happy sounds and relaxation. Definitely worth checking out. Follow the links below.