Stela Campos

Stela Campos launched her musical path in 1989 by performing as a jazz vocalist across nightclubs throughout São Paulo, South America’s largest metropolis. Her sets featured classics such as “Moonlight in Vermont” alongside unconventional jazz renderings of material by David Bowie and Van Morrison. Early in the following decade she assembled the group Lara Hanouska, only to leave it shortly afterward and join Funziona Senza Vapore, whose ranks consisted largely of alumni from the rock outfit Fellini. Although she appeared on just a single release with Funziona Senza Vapore, the ensemble cultivated a devoted cult audience. In 1994 Campos relocated to Recife in northeastern Brazil and revived Lara Hanouska with an entirely new lineup. Together they wrote and played material steeped in the sonic approaches of Velvet Underground and Sonic Youth. While based in Recife she also collaborated with Chico Science and Nação Zumbi, the flagship act of the mangue beat scene. In 1997 she supplied the vocals for the title song of the film Baile Perfumado, whose expansive soundtrack drew widespread notice. By the close of the decade, influenced by the genre-blending ethos of mangue beat, Campos grew weary of her band’s guitar-driven style and turned toward electronic experimentation. She inaugurated her solo work with the daring 1999 album Céu de Brigadeiro. In the years that followed she returned to São Paulo, honing a hybrid style that fused singer-songwriter rock, MPB, and electronica. That process culminated in 2002 with the well-received Fim de Semana, on which her husband Luciano Buarque shared songwriting credit for several tracks. Her next effort, Hotel Continental, further solidified both this evolved sound and her ongoing creative alliance with Buarque.