99 Stories about Hermeto Pascoal – 10

Swimming with Sound

This is my first post of 2025. I am continuing with my series of 99 stories involving my musical mentor, Hermeto Pascoal. Story number 10 is below. You can read the previous stories here and here, or by searching the post archive, if you are a paid subscriber.

Which reminds me to say “Thank you” to all of my free and paid subscribers. One way to support my work is to upgrade to a paid subscription. The first half of the post below is open to all subscribers, but there are some exclusive features that you only can access by upgrading. Not to mention option to access the entire post archive.

Hope you enjoy the article!

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Hermeto has always been an aquatic creature. I have always been impressed at his capacity to use water in the countless ways he makes music.

Most of us have seen this clip of our Grupo in 1985 playing in a river in São Paulo state. It has had millions of views on social media, and it is just one example of the many ways that Hermeto uses his incredible creativity in the service of Music. The musicians in this video are:

Hermeto Pascoal – water jugs and bamboo flute

Jovino Santos Neto, Carlos Malta, Marcio Bahia and Itiberê Zwarg – water bottles and water percussion

Pernambuco – water percussion.

That scene was completely improvised and it was filmed live during the making of a documentary about PETAR, a state park in the south of São Paulo state with many caves that were threatened by the illegal exploitation of limestone. After having been invited to compose a soundtrack for the film, Hermeto insisted instead that the Grupo join the production crew, camping for 10 days in the middle of the Atlantic rainforest, creating the music along with the filming, which took place in the old growth forest, inside of caves and in the river, like in the clip above. For me it was an unforgettable experience. As a biologist, I couldn’t believe that my love of tropical ecosystems could be so much connected to my life as a musician through my collaboration with Hermeto. What seemed to be two separate paths, Nature and Music, became one wide embrace of how the sounds of Music represent the world around us and inside us.

Hermeto playing the bass flute and the Grupo playing inside a cave at PETAR State Park, São Paulo state, 1985.

Hermeto’s silhouette in front of Iguaçu Falls, 1989 - photo by Jovino Santos Neto

I came to see and hear how Hermeto’s musical mind is so deeply rooted in his childhood in a wild place in the 1930s deep into the sertão of Alagoas, totally off the grid with no electricity and no radio. Just the sounds of frogs, birds, water, farmers working the tobacco plantations, women singing in the local church and the faraway chants of native tribes living nearby.

For Hermeto, this 1985 performance caught on film was simply a way to reconnect with his childhood experience growing up in Lagoa da Canoa (Canoe Lake), a small village in the hinterlands of Alagoas state in northeastern Brazil. He told us many stories of swimming as a boy in the lake that the village was named after. Hermeto’s albino skin is so sensitive that any exposure to the Sun will create blisters in a very short time. The day after this clip was made Hermeto’s arms and back were peeling like an onion.

Lagoa da Canoa, Alagoas in 1985. Photo by Jovino Santos Neto