A salutation to Orisha culture, a timeless influence on the Brazilian music scenario, the album “Oríkì” (dobra discos/Altafonte) is also a highlight in the artistic trajectory of Iara Rennó. With a unique afro-brazilian sound, the work is a result of more than 13 years of research, creation and production. The 13 songs off the album — 12 of them are brand new releases, since “Ave Leve” was recorded by Virgínia Rodrigues on the album “Cada Voz é Uma Mulher” — are dedicated to the most popular orishas in Brazil and were composed from ancient transcreations of the nagô tradition. The recordings started in 2009 at the iconic studio El Rocha, and feature collaborations from such names as Tulipa Ruiz (in a new recording of a song that precedes her debut album), Anelis Assumpção, Lucas Santtana, Curumin, Criolo, Carlinhos Brown and Thalma de Freitas. The album is finally publicly presented on May 20th, available on every streaming service.

This is the first part of a body of work composed of two sibling albums, “Oríkì” and “Ori Okàn”, with this record presenting some new elements finally born into the world. With a musical language that combines traditional percussion and jazzy-pop instrumentation, Iara’s highly anticipated album creates a bridge between tempos and synaesthetic layers. There’s a mysterious atmosphere that enhances the listener’s perception so they can guess, through the rhythm and the characteristic descriptions, which orisha is celebrated in each song — since the entity’s name isn’t explicitly cited. The idea for the project was born in 2009, when Iara created a sound installation at the Museu Afro Brasil, titled “Oríkì in Corpore”. The exhibition had 12 pieces, each one dedicated to an orisha which then received a song. This process led to “Oríkì”, a phonographic work that has remained unpublished and unfinished until now.

Some lyrics were written by the essayist Antonio Risério (published in his book, “Oríkì Orixá”) and then set to music by Iara. Other lyrics originated from research on oriki, published by experts on the subject, such as Babalorixá Sikiru Salami, originating the “neo-oriki” — a contemporary poem in homage to the orishas. The second album — distinct in sound, aesthetic concept and approach to the subject — is complementary to the first and is due to be released in 2023.

With art and music production by the accomplished singer, songwriter and poet, “Oríkì” has, alongside traditional percussion, diverse electrical instrumentation and a narrative of its own, particular to the oriki, to describe African gods. The second album, in turn, promises a more acoustic and intimate instrumentation, with songs that dialogue with the orishas’ universe in a more subjective way. The group of renowned musicians who perform on “Oríkì”, include names such as Kiko Dinucci, Curumin, Maurício Badé, Guilherme Granado, Lucas Martins, Simone Sou, Marcelo Jeneci, Guilherme Held and Simone Julian.

Through attending candomblé terreiros since 2007, in 2020 — two years ago — Iara’s artistic and personal paths have enabled her to experience the initiation in candomblé. It was there, in the terreiro, where she conceived a new harvest of songs, in a mirrored action of creation and rebirth. The new songs were born by connecting with the dormant project, enhancing the relation of dialog and complementing the work. The material recorded in 2009 had its memory updated and recreated with the life that follows in these recordings, bringing back the African oriki’s cultural heritage and its reverberations in Brazilian music. “Oríkì”, therefore, is a work transfixed by foundations and fundamentals which promote a cultural-historic recovery and a personal story, presenting objective and subjective symbolic values.

Oríkì by definition
Ori (head, fate, spirit, ancestral essence) and ki (from the verb salute). Oríkì means a Salutation to the Spirit.
“An Oríkì is, above anything else, a prayer, an evocation. An Oríkì is a prayer that bonds not only beautiful words, but also sentiments and senses, and that sometimes don’t turn out as they should, at the time we want them to, but only when they, the orikis, want. […] Everything is a motive for an oriki. We should practice it a lot, but never just being reasonable, because only the words from the heart know how to pray”.

Ana Maria Gonçalves, from Um Defeito de Cor.
The oriki came to Brazil through slave ships, carried in the bodies of the enslaved Africans. As time passed by the afro-descendants acquired new habits, abandoning old traditions and creating new ones — a natural process of adaptation in a new environment with new conditions of existence, and, in this process, its use as a daily life and social rite has been, at times, abandoned.

The oríkì were nevertheless preserved in the sacred realm, through the cultural-religious life of candomblé: the ancient oríkì of orishas has been repeated through generations. More recently the oríkì have been reclaiming their artistic-cultural value, and are known as “subterranean poetics”, which affect the space of creative writing in the New World. In Brazil, this appreciation started in the 1960’s, supported by the first translations into Portuguese conceived by Síkírù Sàlámi, Sylvio Lamenha and Pierre Verger, with their gradual dissemination of oriki and “neo-oriki”, which can be found, for example, in the lyrics of in Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. It is, thus, essential that this resignification as cultural heritage of the African roots be on the agenda nowadays.

Even though the Yoruba, Banto and Jejê are the basis of what we call Brazilian culture — even beyond our music —, all of this expression has been marginalized and oppressed for centuries, a victim of racism and religious prejudice. For this reason, there is the need for this reaffirmation to be constant and also to present this knowledge to the layperson, today and always. Besides artistic creation, “Oríkì” and “Orí Okàn” are a symbol for memory, recall and history, which builds a bridge between then and now. 

About Iara Rennó — Singer, songwriter and poet, she has had more than a hundred songs recorded by singers like Elza Soares, Ney Matogrosso, Lia de Itamaracá, Gaby Amarantos, Jaloo, Ava Rocha and Virgínia Rodrigues. The artist also works as an instrumentalist, arranger, actress, poet, performer, director and musical producer. In late 2021, she premiered her first movie, “Transflorestar — Ato 1”, at the 19th Paraty's Literary Fair (FLIP). It is a hybrid work with direction, screenplay and acting by Iara Rennó, edition and video art by Mary Gatis, art direction by Alma Negrot and participations from Curumin and Ed Trombone. The movie has collaborators such as Ava Rocha, Tetê Espíndola and Alzira E, as well as documented speeches from the Yanomami Shaman Davi Kopenawa and the Burkinabè philosopher Sobonfu Somé.

In July 2021, Iara released “Para Te Abraçar”, a live-recording that was produced based on the self-titled web-series. In 2020, she released the album “AfrodisíacA”, an intersemiotic project collecting poetry, music and video art. In 2019, she worked mainly on two big projects, the musicals “Macunaíma Ópera Tupi - Transcriação” (SESC Vila Mariana, São Paulo) and “Pretoperitamar — O Caminho Que Vai Dar Aqui” (SESC Pompéia). Amidst solo and band projects, her production work encompasses ten albums. 
In 2018, she recorded on TV Cultura a show called “Pratinho do Iaiá”, where she worked as the host and the soundtrack composer. In 2015, Iara published her first venture into the literary world, a poetry book titled “Língua Brasa Carne Flor” (Editora Patauá). It was while studying for her degree in the Faculty of Letters of the São Paulo University (USP) that Iara started to put to music some excerpts of the book “Macunaíma — O Herói Sem Nenhum Caráter”. This afterwards became one of her  most important projects, resulting in different productions, such as the album “Macunaíma Ópera Tupi” (Selo SESC, 2008), renowned by critics and public, and she was responsible for other plays such as “Macunaíma no Oficina — Ópera Baile” (Teatro Oficina, December 2010), “Macunaíma Ópera Tupi — Transcriação” (SESC Vila Mariana, February 2019), “Macunaíma Música e Prosa — Aula Show” and “MACUNAS”, in numerous exhibitions that traveled throughout Brazil during many years and had also a brief European season. 

Her first musical project was the band DonaZica, led by Iara, Andreia Dias and Anelis Assumpção. The band released the albums “Composição (2003)” and “Filme Brasileiro” (2005). Iara first began her career singing alongside her mother, Alzira E, as well as having been a part of Itamar Assumpção’s live band as a vocalist, from 2000 to 2003. From 1998 to 2002, she attended the USP Faculty of Letters.

https://www.iararenno.com