about musica mundial

Musica Mundial is a collective of musicians that play traditional music from Latin America, Europe and Africa. The collective is led by Julian Scheffer and can take on many forms from a solo traditional 7-string guitar to a large and lively ensemble with vocals, clarinet, violin, piano accordion, cavaquinho, and percussion.

In most recent years Julian’s main musical direction has been writing and arranging music with 'Projeto Inesperado', a group of musicians with a passion for the traditions of Portugal, Brazil, Capo Verde and Argentina. The new CD by the group, Feito à mão (‘made by hand’) is a collection of rich and vibrant songs and was launched and independently released in August 2010. The project is led by Julian Scheffer (7-string guitar) and Yuliya Mik (voice) and the most recent album includes Melbourne musicians Sarah Depasquale (violin) and Greg Lavell (piano accordion).

Julian has just produced a new solo EP recorded in late 2010 ‘Julian Scheffer’, that features some solo material as well as two duets with good friends from Melbourne. Oscar Poncell joins Julian on ‘Sons de Carrilhoes’ and Greg Lavell on ‘Sanfona’.

Another recent EP, ‘Chorinho’, recorded live at the VCA in November, features Julian Scheffer (7-string guitar), Paul Carey (6-string guitar), Adam May (cavaquinho), Gideon Brazil (flute) and Adele Vosper (pandeiro). The EP includes a selection of classic choro from composers such as Jacob do Bandolim, Waldyr Azevedo and Paulinho da Viola.

Julian has been involved in a number other projects including 'Pepper', a trio that produced two CDs: “Handy Bean Candy”, which fused hip hop with the sounds of the Caribbean, and “Tangy Latin Mixtures”, which drew from tango, salsa and samba; also the 9-piece Melbourne Latin hip-hop outfit LABJACD. This group draws influence from the son music of Cuba, salsa from Puerto Rico, Afro beat from Nigeria, traditional Andean folk music, Afro Peruvian music, jazz and hip hop. and has released three albums to date, the most recent being 'Words Out.' Another of Julian’s groups, Green Tea, started out as a group of friends exploring the fusion of various musical styles from around the world but soon became known as one of the few quartets in Melbourne to be playing a diverse range of music from the Caribbean, Cuba, Nigeria and Mali.

Julian’s principle work is playing choro influenced music and he is influenced by such guitarists as Doug de Vries, Yamandu Costa, Rogério Caetano and Maurício Marques. Choro is considered an important popular music style in Brazil and is typified by the use of the 7 string guitar. Julian spent a number of years in Europe, taking in the music of Portugal, Eastern Europe and Spain – where he lived for a short time learning the language and working in Andalucía. Julian has also just returned from a study trip to Rio de Janeiro where he received guitar lessons and undertook research for an honors thesis. Julian Scheffer is now residing in the Netherlands.