Uakti (band)
| Uakti | |
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Uakti performing at the Ibirapuera Auditorium in 2005
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil |
| Genres | Minimalism, experimental |
| Years active | 1978-2015 |
| Website | uakti |
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Uakti (WAHK-chee) was a Brazilian instrumental musical group that was composed of Marco Antônio Guimarães, Artur Andrés Ribeiro, Paulo Sérgio Santos, and Décio Ramos. Uakti was known for using custom-made instruments, built by the group itself.
The name of the group comes from a Tucano native South American legend. Uakti was a mythological being who lived on the banks of the Rio Negro. His body was full of holes, which, when the wind passed through them, produced sounds that bewitched the women of the tribe. The men hunted down Uakti and killed him. Palm trees sprouted up in the place where his body was buried, and the people used these to make flutes that made enchanting sounds like those produced by the body of Uakti.
The group's leader, Marco Antônio Guimarães, studied music at the Universidade Federal da Bahia in Salvador. There he met and took classes with Walter Smetak, who passed on to him his passion for constructing musical instruments. In the years following his training, Marco Antônio played cello with the São Paulo and Minas Gerais symphony orchestras. During the same period he constructed, in the basement of his house, various instruments out of PVC, wood, and metal. In order to have musicians to play these instruments, in 1978 Guimarães had the idea of bringing together some of his colleagues from the Orquestra Sinfônica de Belo Horizonte, to meet at the Foundation for Artistic Education of Belo Horizonte. Various musicians took part; among them were the percussionists Paulo Sérgio Santos and Décio de Souza Ramos, the flutist Artur Andrés Ribeiro, and the cellist Cláudio Luz do Val. These musicians learned how to play the instruments, and the group Uakti was formed. Marco Antônio Guimarães became the principal composer and arranger, although all the participants frequently contributed their own compositions.
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