Tribalistas

Tribalistas is not a name they came up with by chance. It emerged from a song they recorded together before even thinking about an album. The trio — Arnaldo Antunes, MPB with rock touches; Carlinhos Brown, percussionist and composer with Afro-Brazilian roots; and Marisa Monte, versatile voice ranging from pop to experimental — had already been crossing paths in studios and stages for years. But when they gathered at Marisa’s house in Rio in 2002, they weren’t planning an album. They just wanted to try something. The result was a self-titled record recorded in thirteen days, one song at a time, with a sound that blends acoustic and electronic elements without forcing styles.

The group’s name came later: a mix of “tri” (for the three) and “tribus,” as if they were a small sonic community.What’s curious is that this first Tribalistas wasn’t born from a commercial decision. Before recording, each had already collaborated with the others in unrelated projects: Antunes wrote songs for Marisa, Brown did the same, and all three appeared as guests on each other’s albums. But when they locked themselves in that house, something changed. The album sold over two million copies in Brazil and another three million worldwide, along with a DVD that didn’t just show the songs but the conversations between takes. Songs like Já sei namorar played in Europe and Argentina without them targeting those markets.