[nettime-lat] Radio Re:combo - The World/BBC

["h.d.mabuse" <mabuse@manguebit.org.br>]

Radio Recombo report (5:00)
http://www.theworld.org/latesteditions/20030923.shtml
The Recording Industry Association of America has sued 261 people it 
accuses of illegally distributing music online. The trade group says these 
people are stealing intellectual property. But some fans, especially young 
ones, argue that music should be free. And they have a champion in a group 
of Brazilian musicians and computer programmers. "Radio Recombo" uses free 
software it invented to sample free music the group and its fans created. 
Recombo is from the town of Recife . But Amy Radil caught a performance in 
Sao Paulo.

--------

At an elegant, dimly-lit  cultural center in Sao Paulo's financial district,
about a hundred people dance and nod to an eclectic mix of hiphop and
traditional Brazilian  music.
The six musicians on stage have traveled a long way from home -- for many,
the 1,500 mile trek from Recife is the longest they've ever made.

A programmer who goes by the name DJ Mabuse points to two computer monitors
where DJs are clicking on music files that people have sent in.

VOICE-OVER: "There are lots of people connected at the same time.  Each one
prepares a sequence on his computer. When you turn it loose, it goes on the
air here, and it's open to everyone."

These random music files create the percussion. From there, Recombo members
onstage add recorded sounds as well as live guitar and traditional Brazilian
flute.

Recombo is a five-year-old collective of musicians, DJ's and computer
programmers with a utopian vision. They advocate the end of intellectual
property laws that THEY say benefit record companies instead of artists.
But instead of stealing music online, Recombo creates free music and
software to give away. Their software program, Radio Recombo, helps people
upload - and download -  music samples at home which they can then use in
their OWN compositions.

Every few months, Recombo members show off their software in live
performances.

Many of the music samples incorporated in these shows are sent in by
musicians

who only have bare-bones recording studios attached to their computers. The
only thing Recombo DOESN'T want, Mabuse says, is anything commercial.

"Our position is NOT to use material that's copyright protected. And on the
other side, anything we produce we make available to others. It's our
attempt to improve the scenario we have today."

The high price of CDs in Brazil puts them out of reach for most people,
Mabuse says, which in turn feeds a thriving market in pirated CDs. Last year
Recombo members asked a record company to sell a CD they made for about
$1.50, which the company said was impossible. Recombo has received
support -- and music samples - from users around the world.

And this night in Sao Paulo, they get a warm reaction from the young,
hipster crowd their performances attract.

"I think it's really cool," says college student Caroline Clifton. "it's a
new way to make music, because they mix sounds typical of brazilian music
with guitar, with dance mixes, it's a new tropicalia," she says, referring
to the explosive movement of the late 1960's that brought brazilian music
together with international pop. Her boyfriend Roberto Machado seems a
little less sure:

Machado: "This kind of music, it's a little too much for me, it's
not melodic, and it's confused, very confused. But I like it."

Recombo members say whether or not their music is appreciated, the main
idea is for computer users to take Recombo's software and do whatever THEY
want with it.

The group's members know their agenda of free music and software for
everyone is idealistic - none of them plan to give up their day jobs anytime
soon. But they do plan to work with poor teenagers in Recife to increase
computer literacy in their hometown. Mabuse says the first step will be to
teach young people to create their own web logs, so that they, too, can have
a global audience.

For the world I'm amy radil, Sao Paulo, brazil.

_______________________________________________
Nettime-lat mailing list
Nettime-lat@nettime.org
http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-lat