Recycling junk for music!

During our time in Brazil for the amazing Celebrar Brasilia event we were playing at, we hooked up for a recording session with the incredible “eco-band” Patubatê (pronounced Patoo-bat-ay). For over 12 years now, the guys have been transforming and recycling all manner of old junk and scrap metal into musical instruments, from kitchen pots and pans to car exhaust pipes and truck suspension springs, all in a kind of re-cycling Stomp Brazilian style!

Performing internationally but based in the country’s capital Brasilia, the group of showmen headed up by the trio of Fred Magalhães, Fernando Mazoni and DJ Leandronik, use their unconventional instruments of metal, wood and plastic to create all sorts of Brazilian rhythms from samba to maracatu, baião and others all mixed with electronic beats and vinyl scratching.  They describe it as ‘sustainable music created with recycled instruments’, we’d describe it as ‘simply amazing’!

Filling two pick-up trucks with all their kit, we filmed the guys in the Park da Cidade in Brasilia, where they gave us a taster of their wild and stunning performance, playing a whole range of their self-built ‘junk’ instruments from saucepans and a whole car exhaust to a beautiful berimbau!


Big thanks to Gustavo Lavoura for joining in and to João Vicente from Celebrar Brasília for the introduction.  Check them out at www.patubate.com