A PANDA DO SOL

Samba de Raiz / Brass

A story of love for Samba music and soulful intercultural rhythms.

The Brazilian Samba and brass ensemble "A Panda do Sol" started its musical journey in 2016, founded by French composer, guitarist and vocalist Félix Huet. The artists have been creating their own Sambas and blending them to the musical & cultural background of each musician, creating a unique language on a base of traditional Brazilian percussions and harmonics. 

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"Panda" is a growing project which gathers today up to eight musicians from Brazil, France, Colombia, Germany & Spain, all living in Berlin, Germany.

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The band's first album "Fôlego" portrays the beginning of their musical path and forecasts compositions about nature, love and death, in the image of the first Sambistas of the era, joining poetry and rhythm. It was recorded and composed with singer, lyricist and friend Natasha Simon Safir and was released in September 2019. 

Their new project "Homenagem" is a direct homage to some of these composers, the creators of the roots of Samba music. 

Recorded in Berlin in the winter of 2020, it will be released under the label of Sungroove records on the 26th of May 2022.

Musicians:

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Félix Huet: vocals, guitar

Héléna Fontaine: vocals, cavaquinho

Oscar Buschinger: clarinet, vocals

Antonio de Silóniz: saxophone tenor

Yannick Mäntele: trumpet

Marleen Dahms : trombone

Raúl Gonzalez: tamborim, agogô, ganzá

Camila Berrio: pandeiro, vocals

Alex Rigaud : surdo

STATE OF THE ART(S) : LICHTENBERG

Episode 7 : A PANDA DO SOL

How are musicians dealing with lockdown? 

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A documentary by Björn Döring and Jim Kroft, episode 7 with A Panda Do Sol.

In the industrial area between Herzberg- and Josef-Orlopp-Straße, the new playgrounds and workplaces of culture in Lichtenberg are being built. New bars, rehearsal rooms, studios have opened here and the Dong Xuan Centre ensures that tram cars full of people keep arriving here anyway, discovering the area for themselves anew.

The NadaNadi studio in Josef-Orlopp-Straße is one of these places with new a appeal. The studio was founded and built up by the two Frenchmen Florent Chaintiou and François Perdriau, who can offer a residency artists and record new music.

Their French compatriots Félix Huet & Héléna Fontaine immediately identified the studio as their very special Lichtenberg location when we asked them where we should film them and their band "A Panda Do Sol".

The eight-piece band is currently recording their second record there, the album "Homenagem", which is scheduled for release in the Spring of 2022.

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Filmed by Jim Kroft in November 2020.

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