Karnak (band)

Karnak is a band from São Paulo, Brazil. It is known for mixing diverse music styles from around the world with pop and rock. Many critics consider Karnak's music style to be world music, although the band rejects this label, claiming that its "ethnic" sound results from their intuition, not from researches.

In 1992, the lead singer and guitarist, André Abujamra, had ended his musical duo Os Mulheres Negras with Maurício Pereira and went travelling throughout the world with an audio recorder in his hand, collecting every kind of music he could find, with the idea of creating a band that combined these various styles with Brazilian regional music and modern styles like rock, pop and electronic music. One of the destinations of his trip was the ancient tombs of Karnak. He was deeply affected by those tombs and decided to name his band after it.

Upon returning to Brazil, he recruited musicians, mostly from among his friends. He even kept two drummers in the band because both were old friends and he could not dismiss one of them. The project swelled to include ten musicians, two actors and a dog. The band rehearsed for a year before playing a concert, and soon became known for its unusual shows featuring comedy sketches and unusual attire, especially a penchant for odd hats.

In 1995, Karnak released its first album, Karnak. The album was released by the now defunct Brazilian label Tinitus. After the label's demise, the album was re-released some years after by Net Records. The album was praised by critics but received little airtime on commercial radio. However, Karnak became well-known on university radio stations around São Paulo and it even had some videos played in Brazilian MTV.

The band's second album, Universo Umbigo (Bellybutton Universe), in 1997, was released by Velas, another now-defunct label. The lineup had by this time reached its apex, with fifteen persons, including a belly dancer. In Brazil, the album had less impact that the first one, and to this day it is out of catalog and available only as download at emusic stores under the name of Karnak Universo. Although it did not do well in Brazil, it became popular to some extent on college radio in the United States.

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