Inside the package / L'intérieur de l'emballage (by Fernanda Castilho, translated by Maria Bitarello)

A compilation of versions of songs by Erik Satie, Cocteau Twins, Guns N’ Roses, Suzanne Vega and Beach House. Ranging from classical music and post-rock to dream pop and shoegaze, Alles Club (or the “club for all things”) injects its essence into old songs and reminds us that artistic and musical making is, above all, recreating – “half of it, myself; the other half, others”.

As we unwrap, a version of Gnossienne No. 1, a piano composition by late 19th century Frenchman Erik Satie, is shredded then remodelled. This reinterpretation combines concerto music with Alles Club’s unique experimentalist and post-rocker trait: a powerful mix of pulsating drums and the cello’s thickness of body with a layered mesh of guitar sounds. Cherry-Coloured Funk, a classic dream-pop tune by Scottish Cocteau Twins, is transformed into a slow and melancholicic ballad, with the voices of Stéphanie and Nina accompanied by wavy guitars buzz and Baapz' saxophone melody. Luka, a hit song by singer Suzanne Vega that touches on domestic violence, reincarnates here in a tender lullaby. But no track falls as far from the original tree as Rocket Queen (Guns N’ Roses), which sheds its fierce and restless tone to make room for a mysterious and gentle aura. And lastly, Space Song (Beach House) builds on becoming more organic and hypnotically expands the chorus, “fall back into place”.

Versions, new packages
In conversation, members Rodrigo and Stephanie reflect back on the recording of the versions found in Emballage: “I think playing covers in shows and recording them in an album is a major musical exercise because you have to dive deep into the composer’s mind and you get to see every little detail in there”, says guitarist Rodrigo. Stephanie adds: “I think it’s a fun feature. Especially when a band picks out a song that’s distant from its own universe and brings it home”. Both say it was not the band’s initial intention to record an album of versions; most of the songs compiled in Emballage are from a different era, but with a common thread: the Alles Club “footprint”.

The very first recorded version was Luka, when couple Rodrigo Lopes and Nina Hübscher were starting a new musical project, back in 2012, and which would later birth Alles Club. “Luka started out as an exercise because I wanted to learn how to record, how to mess with the audio production softwares, and at the time I didn't have any composition of my own at hand”, reveals Lopes. Rocket Queen version was specially recorded in 2017 for a compilation in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the album Appetite For Destruction, which was named Appetite For Deconstruction and features the band Martiataka and the musician Marcelo Callado.

Then, they produced and recorded Gnossienne No. 1, which would initially compose a soundtrack for a film. Cherry-Coloured Funk was suggested by Stéphanie as a song for their setlist during the tour of the album Décollage, in 2019. Space Song was, at first, a surprise from Rodrigo and Nina to the band, which later gained collaborations from the other members, a chunk of each until they reached the final version.