“Okê Arô” carries an Oxóssi chant from forest ceremonies in Chapada dos Veadeiros into the new single by Mantric Mambo. Based in Alto Paraíso de Goiás in central Brazil, the band have spent more than twenty years playing inside ayahuasca rituals at the Mãe D’água Temple, where sacred medicines and seasonal cycles shape how they write and play.

The song takes its title from the traditional salutation for Oxóssi, the Orixá of the forests and living nature in Candomblé and Umbanda and sits between afrobeat, samba, bossa nova and MPB. In the recording, choral call-and-response and ancestral Afro-Brazilian chant sit over hand percussion and a low electric bass pattern, with guest saxophonist Jeremy Marais playing terse, cyclical lines that trace directly back to classic Fela Kuti afrobeat horn writing.

The six-piece group comprises vocalists and composers Ambika and Raghini (who also plays flute), multi-instrumentalists Pablo (guitar, viola caipira, electric guitar) and Ninad (acoustic guitar, charango, electric bass, production), and percussionists Ion (sampoña and percussion) and Samir. Formed around shared musical and spiritual work at the Mãe D’água Temple, their music uses Afro-diasporic and Latin American rhythmic patterns with folk and so-called gypsy swing, written to bring communities together in celebrative ritual with lyrics that speak to faith and hope.

They describe their songs as music that “guides people in their journey within, working as portals for accessing expansion of consciousness, assisting them to tap into the dance of life.”

“Okê Arô” was released on 3 January on all platforms. You can stream and listen to it HERE