XIV- A Integração, Meta_

By A Mystery Man Writer

Last updated 23 May 2024

Meta_ is Mariana Bragada, a singer, composer, and producer from the region of Trás-os-Montes in Northern Portugal. Her debut album, XIV - A Integração, is intimate and organic, with deeply emotive vocals and acoustic instrumentation, yet at the same time heavily features electronic production with deep bass and atmospheric soundscapes. She brings together elements of organic downtempo and trip-hop with ancestral wisdom and yearning vocals that express her hardships and fantasies while reflecting her Portuguese roots. XIV- A Integração is the sonic journey of Meta_, born in Trás-os-Montes Portugal, from her roots to South America. In 2019 she traveled to Pucallpa, Peru, where she had the opportunity and honor to connect with the Ayahuasca medicine plant and be in the presence of a family of Maestros and Maestras from the Shipibo tribe. Coincidentally, in the following 2 weeks, she performed Live Sound Design for Theatre shows of UmColetivo in Belo Horizonte, Brazil and Montevideo, Uruguay. This album is Meta_'s ode to Mother Earth and the human experience, highlighting the symbiosis of organic sound with electronics, tied together with her unique voice. Emotions, visions and lyrics are expressed in 3 languages - Portuguese, Spanish and English. It is in this complementarity that a unique sonic universe is created, born of Portuguese ancestry united with the internal and external journeys of Meta_ across the world. The songs were written, composed and sung by Meta_ with 2 international collaborations - Labaq (Brazil) and Bom Beijo (Sweden) and percussionist Manu Idhra (PT). Meta_ produced the album, with Bom Beijo jointly producing 7 songs. This is the space for integrating Meta_'s life lessons. Beyond duality, this album is based on the colorful, intimate and empowering spectrum of revealing yourself to the world, just as you are, with fears, dreams, pain and love. It’s about death, about life, about being here. It was in South America that Meta_ was born again and, so far from the land where she lives, she felt at home. It is with this journey and its alchemy manifested in the album, that the common and cross-border value that music has of union, ancestry and healing is visibly awakened. “I use the roots as wings, I will be a flying tree.”