Zombieoper

Unexpected things are born from unlikely combinations.
This could basically sum up the gathering of Diego Medina and Desirée Marantes in their first work together. Although both were members of the alcoholic-creative collective named "Os Massa" – a group of friends who get drunk and record improvised songs – the two of them had never created anything together.

After composing the score for an aerial dance performance, Desirée was inspired by her friends “who believe in expressing themselves through their bodies” and their choreography based on zombies. She had plans to create a sort of musical where dancers could express all of their Haitian Zombie potential.

Diego, used to recording alone at home, wanted to maintain the home recording method and the limitless creative freedom, but missed having another set of brains to share the process of composing and recording.

In a beautiful summer day, they both had a talk and found out their ideas had so much in common. They decided to make an album together and dreamed up what ended up becoming the most ambitious work of their lives: an opera rock about zombies and human beings. Engineering it all from home, Medina and Desi teamed up to record all the possible and imaginable instruments. A Herculean task.

Megalomaniac and whacked?
A little.

The word was spread among the duo’s friends and many of them ended up taking part in the endeavor: Os Massa members, Roberto Panarotto (Repolho), FLU (formerly De Falla)+ Benjão (Do Amor), Gabriel Bubu (Los Hermanos, Do Amor), Kassin (...+2), Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals), Thomas Dreher, Carlita Viceconti, Diego’s dad, and so on. Even the couple of geese that Desirée’s mother had added their contribution to the opera rock. From January to November of 2007, the album grew and grew until it reached the impressive figures of 24 tracks in almost 80 minutes of recordings