Produced by Mario Caldato and Marisa Monte  Recorded and Mixed by Mario Caldato  Executive Producer Leonardo Netto  Additional Recording by Dadi, Guilherme Calicchio, and Andres Levin  Line Producer Cíntia Carvalho  Recording Assisted by Guilherme Calicchio and Márcio Barros  Mixing Assisted by Guilherme Calicchio  Mastered by Bernie Grundman Collage and Cover Concept by Beatriz Milhazes  Design by Gringo Cardia  Design Coordination by Gringa Cardia / Mesosfera Produções  Art Coordination by Gabi Caspary Collage and Cover Concept  Assisted by Tereza Lyrio and Violeta dos Campos  Assistant Graphic Designers Carolina Vaz, Flavia Castro, Pedro Pezinho and Rico Vilarouca  Chord Charts by Dadi and Guilherme Calicchio  Lyrics translated by Arto Lindsay  Liner Notes by: Marisa Monte  Recorded and mixed in Rio de Janeiro with additional recording in New York between June and September, 2005 Real time sound processing on Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 10,

and 11 - Wladimir Gasper Special Thanks Pedro, Mano, Paulinho da Viola, Arnaldo Antunes, Adriana Calcanhotto, Monarco and Olinda, Casemiro da Cuíca, Seu Jair do Cavaquinho, Surica, Aurea Maria, to all the Pastoras and the Bambas from the Velha Guarda da Portela, D. Yvonne Lara, Paulão 7 Cordas, Mauro Diniz, Emílio Domingos, Carlos Monte, Nelson Nuccini, Dona Neném and Manacea Andrades family, Juracema de Andrade, Dona Neném and Walter Rosas family, D. Maria Silva,

Elton Medeiros, Leila Carvalho, Moraes Moreira, Baianinho, Orlando Lima, Alcino Correa (Ratinho), Riachão, Carlinhos Brown, Cézar Mendes, Seu Mateus, Bruno Castro, Lila Rabello, Charles Gavin, Berna Cepas, Kassim, Lucas Marcier, Chico Neves, Dora Jobim, Samantha Caldato, Isabela, Lulu, David Byrne, Andres Levin, Shirley Araújo, Franklin Garrido, Sidney Costa, Gilberto Fortes, Flávia Sousa, Claudia Moog, Suely Aguiar, Kléber Silva, D. Nazaré,Meri Gomes, Marcelo Gomes, Pedro Oliveira, Bruno Queiroz and A Voz da América, Giannini S/A, Rouxinol Ltda., Tangará (Musical Izzo)

• Release:

I began on stage.

The arc of my career was built on direct contact with the public in live performances.

In the fifteen years since I began I have not recorded often because of long tours that have kept recording periods far apart.

Five records in fifteen years without counting the Tribalistas and the ones I produced for other artists. In 2001 after I finished the tour for “memories and chronicles” which lasted almost two years I decided to spend some time at home.

I took advantage of this to produce a record for Argemiro and to plunge into the Tribalistas project with Carlinhos and Arnaldo.

A studio project.

I love and have always loved being in the studio.

We recorded the whole record in Rio in thirteen days.

A song a day.

I became pregnant during the recording.

The record came out the month my son was born.

During the months that followed I had a chance to spend more time at home.

I took this opportunity to do some things that would have been difficult if I had been travelling. Without being planned some of them became the seeds for these records I have just made.

From my life long contact with the samba of Rio de Janeiro, especially from time spent with the old guard of the Portela Samba School and from the research I did for their record of 1999 that I produced, I knew of a trove of material preserved only in oral tradition and little by little being lost.

I became curious to know more and searched beyond the borders of Portela. I began a series of interviews, oriented by conversations with Monarco, Paulinho da Viola, Dona Yvonne Lara and my father, among others.

I heard from composers, their relatives and partners while searching for more than songs. I wanted to find out about their points of creative reference and the sources of the songs they wrote.

So the sambas of Jaime Silva, Dona Yvonne, Casemiro, Moraes and Galvão, some more than fifty years old, joined contemporaray songs by Adriana, by Paulinho, by Arnaldo, by Carlinhos and myself. This record, “Universo ao Meu Redor”, is focused more on the atmosphere surrounding samba than on samba itself, on its most frequent subjects- love, nature, music itself, the human condition, the singing of the birds, our back yards, and lives lived together through art…

I invited Mario Caldato, who I have always wanted to work with,to produce this record with me. He is responsible for the sonic personality of the record.

At the same time as I had these meetings regarding samba I began to digitalize all my cassete tapes.

I wanted to save the evidence of the process of composing.

Fifteen years of songs being written.

Some concluded, others abandoned.

A lot of these that everyone knows, at their source notebooks of sonic sketches.

Almost one hundred tapes, all listened to, cataloged and mapped by me.

Infinito Particular.

And this process of listening made be dive into compositions from different periods, not just with old partners like (Nando,Carlinhos,Arnaldo,Pedro Baby,Dadi) but also into widening my horizons to include new partnerships with Seu Jorge, Adriana, Yuka, Leonardo Reis and Rodrigo Campelo.

Many encounters, and soon enough I had material for one more record.

This time I chose only songs I had co written, and I invited Ale Siqueira, who I had worked with on the Tribalistas record, to produce with me.

And with arrangements by Eumir, Phillip and Donato. That’s it…

If I had recorded just one record and gone on the road it would have been a long time before I had the chance to record again and there would have been a rupture betweeen what I do and what I show.

That’s why I conceived these two records of unrecorded songs.

Conceived at the same time, like fraternal twins, coming into the world, now, on the same day.

But very different.

Each with his own story.

Each one speaking for himself.

Like two photographs.

With a lot of people and myself in the mix.

I thank everyone.

Marisa.