Review written by Mark Sampson
about the band's second Release "Homenagem" (2022)

A story of love for Samba music and soulful transatlantic rhythms.
 
A Panda do Sol was born in 2016, founded by French composer, guitarist and vocalist Félix Huet. Joined in 2017 by who will turn out to be his female alter ego, Héléna Fontaine, on the cavaquinho, vocals & composition. The band gathers today up to eight women and men from Brazil, France, Colombia & Germany, and is based in the intercultural center of Berlin Neukölln.
 

The ensemble forecasts the instruments of the genre: cavaquinho, guitar, pandeiro, tamborim, caixa, and surdo, and blends them together with the sound of a New Orleans brass section, leaving a wonderful basis for strong solos & vocals. Since the begining, the band has always put forward the poetry of the old days and the sensitivity of the voice, but by keeping a strong percussion section and a love for costume and performance, they created a unique & modern approach to transcultural music.

The band's first EP Fôlego (2019) portrays the beginning of their musical path and forecasts original compositions about nature, love, death or life itself, in the image of the first Sambistas of the era. It was recorded and composed with singer, lyricist and friend Natasha Simon Safir and was released independently in September 2019. 
 
For their second release Homenagem (Sungroove records, 2022), the band grew in size and developed a stronger brass section, creating instrumental arrangements & leaving more room for improvisation. This album is their personal archeological musical study, an homage to some of the composers who gave birth to the roots of Samba music. Each song featured has been harmonically inverted from major to minor, making this project a unique re-lecture of some famous and other unknown pearls of the traditional genre of Samba de Raiz.

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They are currently working on their third album of original music, this time in both Portuguese & French.

Breaking out of the Samba sphere to bring in new influences & rhythms: Carribean Biguines, Brazilian Cirandas & Côco, as well as Cabo Verdean Mornas and Coladeiras. The two composers have been travelling through space as well as music, blending their past to their future, and forecasting the amazing musicians which joined the group in the last year.

For this upcoming project they decided to contact Brazilian producer & sound magician Caê Rolfsen (ORI Lab - Riachão, Elza Soarez, Alessandra Leão, Liniker e os Caramelows, João Donato) who will be working on the mixing of the album and has already visited them in Berlin to accompany the process.

Through the years, they have been called to perform in some of Germany's best stages and world music festivals such as the Karnevnal der Kulturen (2019 & 2023), the X-jazz Festival (2019), the Fusion Festival (2022), the Badehaus (2022, 2023) and more recently the World Health Sumit (2023).

For the last 2 years, they have been hosting a Brazilian and Latin-Roots Jam Session (Mikro Hiejazz) in the Grüner Salon of the Volksbuehne, inviting some of the city's most promising musicians and creating a space for touring artists to meet their audience and collaborate with local artists.

Musicians:

Félix Huet: Vocals, Guitar
Héléna Fontaine: Vocals, Cavaquinho
Oscar Ferdinand/ Eldar Tsalikov : Clarinet, Vocals
Marlene Dahms : Trombone 
Yannick Mäntele: Trumpet
Juca Junior : Pandeiro, Caixa
Camila Berrio: Tamborim, Agogô, Conga
Aduni Guedes : Surdo, Alfaia