naturalismo

Yesterday we reported that Devendra Banhart’s new album was titled Vasu deva kutumbam (after reading it here, here and here) and thinking that a management run myspace page was credible enough. It now looks like those sources read too much into the original, somewhat vague myspace page, as I have the word straight from Devendra about the title of the new album and how the recording process is finishing up. In a brief correspondence with Devendra, who I believe was writing from within the studio, he mentioned that he was tracking the record and that it was difficult for him to outwardly comment on it all since he was still so in the album. In regards to the albums title, Devendra says that at the moment there’s no official name for the album yet. As for the new songs, he said to expect lots of surprises and that being where they are recording has allowed for some interesting friends to come in and add to it all. While saying that many of the songs are very direct lyrically, he also mentioned that his Spanish songs in particular were, from what I gathered, increasingly expanding the ideas of a universal spirituality beyond what he ever had written before in the language. I think what he was getting at was the interconnectedness of man, animal and his surroundings. There’s also a song that is sung in Portuguese. Keeping true to his mentioning last year of recording parts of the album on a boat, several of the songs were recorded on a sailboat on the way to Catalina. Finally, he told me one thing he’s certain of, “i will say , its more……. musical!”

Naturalismo

photo (c) Lauren Dukoff