The following interview with Marco Scarassatti – conducted by Thaís Aragão – was first published in portuguese on the Escuta Nova Onda blog run by the aforementioned researcher. It was done during the time when Marco Scarassatti just had released Rios Enclausurados on a local independent label called Seminal Records. This release was based on a series of field recordings that captured the sounds of Belo Horizonte covered and now underground rivers. (Rui Chaves)
Thaís: How did you get to know about the city’s underground rivers? Why, and how did they catch your attention?
I discovered this in a ‘derive’ through the city. I had bought a bus ticket to Campinas in a Saturday afternoon, although the bus was scheduled to leave late that evening. I decided to go out and to let myself be taken by the sounds of the city. In one of the streets that I turned to, more precisely at ‘Rio Grande do Norte’, I heard a sound coming below street level. I got closer to a water drainage hole in the middle of the street – and I was suprised by what I saw. After that, I started paying attention and realised that the city had these ‘holes’ located in different streets.
ESCUTA NOVA ONDA 