This album is a continuation and, at the same time, a departure from the original ‘Survival Diaries’.

Not entirely guitar-based, but the guitar is still a pivotal instrument. The very fact that this album is also called ‘Insílios’ is because I wanted to recall a trilogy of albums I’ve made called ‘Exílios’.

Instead of calling several guest musicians from different parts of the world, I opted to be an one-man-band as much as to be my own orchestra with synthesized keyboards or an extra guitar. Perhaps, it has more connection with ‘A Era da Estupidez’ than anything, but ‘Insílios’ came purely out of self-expression.

The external causes are even more subdued. This is me talking to me, and trying not to get crazy in the process. These pre-composed material have
come to be developed as the way they were recorded. The self-imposed exile has become more insular as much as I realized how alone is the process of my own creation.

There’s just one guest, though, and a dear friend of mine with her expressive voice: Nandah Carmo. Also, there are texts written by different writers: the psychologist Clarissa Pinkola Estés and the poet-filmmaker
Mário Peixoto. Survival is an universal theme, and I wanted to amplify talking not only about my own experience, but also of the human kind (nowadays, still facing the pandemic nightmare).

My music is all about moods and slipstreams of thoughts and emotions, and words many times can’t convey what I’m aiming to express. However, words can echo or mirror those sounds. That’s the road or the sea I’m travelling with ‘Insílios ou Diários da Sobrevivência 2'.

George Christian

Brad Rose - Foxy Digitalis, Nov10, 2021

"In the second installment of George Christian’s Survival Diaries, the Brazilian guitarist gets deep into midnight. Insílios ou Diários da Sobrevivência 2 forges a heavy atmosphere. Christian’s compositions are fused together with a methodic determination to survive the darkness and bring others with him into a new day. Across 13 varied soundscapes, he explores a range of emotions, thoughts, and fears and leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for everyone else to follow.

Quixotic lamentations shimmer from the resonant clang of guitar strings on pieces like “Meditação Sem Sono” and “Desafortunado Exílio.” Severed leads wind through the lost caverns between still standing monuments and ancient ruins. Shrouded by a dense fog, Christian’s guitar transgressions are a torch, acrid yet bright. Spacious drones burn beneath the strings, swelling into view as we turn our eyes away from the sharp illumination. “Desafortunado Exílio” doubles the clashing toll and cuts through searching electric solos and clanking rhythms.

“Mulher Esqueleto” is standout with grinding, angular sonic sprawl creating the perfect dissonance for Nandah Carmo’s reading to take the spotlight. Christian’s arrangement is roiling, rising like smoky fingers to squeeze the air out. Carmo’s voice echoes, the emotion breaking through in unexpected moments. It’s an unsettled world but the mix of Christian’s minimalist scrawl and Carmo’s matter-of-fact exposition somehow becomes a caustic glue that holds the two sides together.

Elsewhere Christian explores the fourth world on the vast “In Memorial, Jon Hassell” with dense layers and a sense of urgency. The background howl and crunch grows in volume, but the dusty guitar spread holds its ground, staying at the fore. He builds towering glimmering shrines on “O Poema do Mar Cinzento” while reading a text by Mário Peixoto. It’s challenging but welcoming all the same. Survival Diaries is such an appropriate title because this music plays out like a guide to make it through and find tomorrow’s beguiling light."