Gabriel da Rosa is a rising Cruz Alta, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and guitarist. Growing up in rural, southern Brazil, da Rosa’s radio DJ father exposed him to a wide variety of music from the homeland. But it wasn’t until he relocated to Los Angeles that he began curating Brazilian records and DJ’ing himself.
da Rosa wound up bounding with Stones Throw Records‘ label head, founder, artist and DJ Peanut Butter Wolf over their shared love of Brazilian music. Later, he began writing own original Bossa nova, inspired by traditional Bossa nova, but with a contemporary edge while collaborating with Pedro Dom, a highly sought-after musician, who has worked with some of Brazil’s best, internationally known artists like Seu Jorge, Rodrigo Amarante, and Latin Grammy Award-winner Ian Ramil.
The Brazilian-born artist’s full-length debut, 2023’s É o que a casa oferece was anchored around traditional Bossa nova and samba-inspired sounds with subtle elements of jazz.
da Rosa’s highly-anticipated sophomore album, Cacofonia, derives its title from the Brazilian Portuguese word for “cacophony,” while referencing the album’s overall clash of “notes, tensions, surprises and moods.”
Thematically, the forthcoming album is an ode to Brazil — including his family, its environment and the country’s indigenous and working-class people. The album is the result of da Rosa’s emotional return home after eight years away, following the release of his full-length debut. His family and travels led him back to Cruz Alta. Though he’d often felt like an outsider growing up, seeing Brazil with fresh eyes mae him feel more connected to his country and his people than ever before. And when he returned to Los Angeles to work on the album, he kept those memories close.
Cacofonia reportedly sees da Rosa eschewing much of the more traditional Bossa nova and samba-inspired sounds of his debut, and while Bossa nova is still a part of the album’s overall sound and aesthetic, he wanted to pair and experiment with new influences — Brazilian artists working in other genres and styles, including Rodrigo Amarante and O Terno, as well as American artists like David Byrne (!) and Sam Evian.
Against a colorful musical backdrop, Cacofonia‘s lyrics sung mostly in Brazilian Portuguese, have a trace of saudade, longing for something or someone that you can’t get back — or no longer exists. da Rosa’s parents and siblings discuss their heritage on voice notes in the background of the album’s opening track, setting the scene with an immersive soundscape, alongside the sounds of tropical birds.
Cacofonia also comments on our discordant and polarizing world: da Rosa’s mother performs a poem about the devastating war in Gaza on “Sabor Humanidade,” and other songs speak to class inequality in Brazil and the impact of Bolsonaro’s mining policies on the Amazon and its people. Several album songs see da Rosa bearing witness to the lives of Brazil’s working class — a songwriting style influenced by years of listening to narrative-based songs and his grandmother’s life stories.
After eight years away from family, da Rosa pledges to “never disconnect from my people and roots for this long again.” Cacofonia reportedly sees the Brazilian-born artist making good on that promise. It’s “me, in this moment of my life.” Gabriel saw “how proud I was of my culture. I used to be lost, scared, and trying so hard to please others.” And although he has settled in Los Angeles, where he makes music among the city’s growing scene of of Brazilian musicians, regular DJs with his collection of rare Brazilian records, cooks churrasco and lets his “inner child play freely” through painting, Cruz Alta will always be home. But he says that home is also whenever there are “friends, some sort of security, safety, and community.”
Cacofonia‘s latest single “Pê Patu Pá” begins with a recurring tropical songbird sample and some glistening Rhodes, before unfurling into a gently swaying, Bossa nova groove with a buzzing psych rock-like guitar solo serving as a lush and dreamy bed for da Rosa’s dreamy coo-like croon.
The song talks about the preservation of the sabía, the songbird of São Paulo State since 1966 — and the national songbird since 2002. The character “Vira-Mundo” represents the fight to preserve the bird, which may be seen as representative of Brazil as soccer and Bossa nova.