Rodney Franklin
Diamond Inside Of You

Guitarist and Producer Godriguez (producer of Sampa the Great's “The Great Mixtape") marshalled together some of the best musicians of the new generation in Sydney: A head priest of the Cuban Ifa religion, the step-son of Australia’s greatest ever funk and soul musician, Australia's leading drummer in this new generation and a deeply emotionally gifted pianist from New Zealand. These disparate backgrounds culminate with incredibly sensitive musical and emotional connections to form GODTET.From Godriguez: "I’ve always wanted to make a triptych. I got obsessed with Francis Bacon and then wanted to make a musical triptych. When GODTET started I wanted there to be no preconceptions, the music and the sessions. I just wanted it to become what it was going to become and go where it was gonna go. I definitely didn’t plan a three part oeuvre. But here we are…GODTET III feels like the distillation of the GODTET sound. It feels like the essence and definition of our sound... for now. Whilst the whole GODTET concept for me is about organic development and evolvement and to remain always searching, this album feels like the end of an era. Like everything is now for many people I think. Its been 3 years of very intensive playing, recording and gigging. The first record felt like an explosion of our minds meeting for the first time even though we’d all played together for years in various contexts. An explosive release from the lack of freedom in the musical contexts we’d previously been involved in.The second record found us exploring improvising with a sample loop as a launch pad to playing. Marrying the worlds of beat production and improvised band. Then in reaction to only improvising we recorded a through-composed suite. GODTET III saw us return to the beginning where we recorded purely improvised with no sample or composed or preconceived launchpads. It is interesting comparing the first record and GODTET III. Both came from open improv but are quite different. You really can hear a distinct subconscious concept of what the GODTET sound is or has become. You can hear 3 years of intensive playing, recording and gigging. GODTET III is the final album of this initial triptych where the GODTET sound was forged. It is the end of an era. What best sums up GODTET is the fact that at the very same sessions for III we simultaneously were playing and improvising a brave new world for GODTET. You will hear this soon too. But for now let us relish in what has been the culmination of 3 intensive years as we present you the final piece of the GODTET triptych: GODTET III."

On-Ly is the solo and collaborative moniker of pianist and producer Joshua Smeltink. On-Ly has been playing local traps since 2017, varying across numerous bands, recently settling into the second line-up for his own On-Ly band: Carl Lindeberg, bass (Surprise Chef), Henry Hicks, guitar (Horatio Luna) and Bryce Zelno, drums (Astral Flex). Spanning genres, On-Ly’s house and hip-hop history is ever-present, recently imbued with the hard-hitting post-bop jazz-rock of the 60’s and the 70’s, harking back to bands such as Weather Report and Miles Davis Group (70s); now, keeping the finger pressed to the pulse, his music finds a visceral edge set to the 2010’s and the century that precipitated it. Jazz-beats find synergy with neo-classical sampling, concepts of modern history, obscuring harmonies, machine-based improvisation and the exploration of transferring tangible messages to musical constructs.

On a balmy Brazilian night in February, 1981, a crowd gathered in Rio de Janeiro's Gávea neighbourhood under the iconic dome of the city's Planetário (Planetarium). Alongside musicians like Helio Delmiro and Milton Nascimento (who were in the audience that night), they were there to see the great "Bruxo" (sorcerer) Hermeto Pascoal live in concert, with his new band formation which would become known simply as "O Grupo" (The Group).The series of concerts at the Planetário marked the birth of "O Grupo" which would last with the same line-up (apart from Zé Eduardo Nazário) for the next eleven years. Every member of O Grupo was a phenomenal musician in their own right. It was one of saxophonist/flautist Carlos Malta's first gigs with the group, and the concert unusually featured two drummers, Zé Eduardo Nazário and Marcio Bahia. Nazário, from São Paulo, had played with Hermeto during the mid-70s (as well as with Milton Nascimento, Egberto Gismonti and Toninho Horta, to name a few). Bahia though had just joined the group. Acclaimed keyboard player Jovino Santos Neto was on keyboards, piano and organ, and the great Itiberê Zwarg (who remains in Hermeto's band to this day), played bass. Rounding the group off was the percussionist Pernambuco. During this period (up until the early 90s) the group would rehearse for hours on end, virtually seven days a week, with a total dedication to music and Hermeto's musical vision.Most of the compositions performed that night at the Planetário had never been recorded before, and many are unique to this album, including the wild 'Homônimo Sintróvio', the exaltant 'Samba Do Belaqua', 'Vou Pra Lá e Pra Cá' and 'Bombardino', which features Hermeto's wonderfully absurd call and response mouthpiece soliloquy. Then there's the stunning 7/4 Samba 'Jegue' which builds with inventive dissonance, before releasing yet another celestially colourful, celebratory refrain. The show also features the first recorded performances of 'Era Pra Ser e Não Foi' and 'Ilza na Feijoada' (inspired by Hermetos' wife Ilza's famed black bean and meat stew), which Hermeto later recorded on his 1984 studio album "Lagoa Da Canoa Município De Arapiraca".Dubbed by Miles Davis as "one of the most important musicians on the planet", a Hermeto Pascoal live show was (and still is) an experience like no other. Across the recording of the Planetário concert, wild improvisation meets groovy, virtuosic vamping on progressive, extended psychedelic jams. The tracks are generally built around a beautiful, transcendent melody; instantly recognisable as being Hermeto's, and for the most part, the musicians then solo over extended two chord vamps. There's a plethora of powerfully delivered rhythms, wild solos and the performances are punctuated by Hermeto's unpredictable, at times comical sonic antics.Over forty years since this historic happening, Far Out Recordings is overjoyed to release this magical recording of Hermeto Pascoal e Grupo Live at Planetário Da Gávea, on double vinyl LP, CD and digitally for a February 4th 2022 release.