Gilberto Gil: From Past to Future

Ever since 1968, Gilberto Gil has taken on the role of a futurist, using his songs to reflect on what is to come, including the arrival of the Internet and the world of coding.

By Instituto Gilberto Gil

Text: Ceci Alves, video maker and journalist

Gilberto Gil na Passeata dos Cem Mil (1968-06-26)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Cérebro Eletrônico
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Locked Up and Thinking of the Future

Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso were arrested in São Paulo on December 27, 1968, 14 days after Institutional Act No. 5 (known as AI-5) became law.

Passeata dos Cem Mil nos tempos de ditadura militar, da qual Gilberto Gil participou (1968-06-26)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Both were charged with "an attempted breach of the law and institutional order" for giving people "objective and subjective messages," as if to rebel against the regime. They were taken by car to Rio de Janeiro and placed in separate cells.

Cena do filme Refavela 40, com imagens de arquivo da prisão de Gilberto Gil por porte de maconha na década de 1970 (2019)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Throughout his almost two-month imprisonment, Gil traveled to other worlds in his head; his feet were grounded in the present, but his mind soared through other dimensions in time.

Gilberto Gil, DJ Tudo e Macaco Bong em ensaio para o show Futurível, no estúdio do músico baiano (2010-11-01)Instituto Gilberto Gil

He wrote the song Cérebro Eletrônico during this time of reflection, when a kind soldier named Juarez lent him a guitar in prison. He also wrote Vitrines, Futurível, and another song that he was later unable to recall.

Gilberto Gil visita a Praça des Vosges, em Paris (1970)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Cérebro Eletrônico

Written from an "esoteric scientific outlook or delirium"—as Gil himself describes it on his website—Cérebro Eletrônico (Electronic Brain) was released on the 1969 album Gilberto Gil, after the singer had already left for his three-year exile in London. 

Gilberto Gil com seu filho Pedro durante exílio em Londres (1970)Instituto Gilberto Gil

More than four decades later, Gil spoke about the songs he had written in prison, saying: "The fact that the very core of my existential condition—my body—had been violated; that I was deprived of my freedom to act and to move; to have full control of my space, my time,... 

..."my free will, and my choice, perhaps led me to dream of alternatives and, subconsciously, to think about humankind's physical and mental extensions; our mechanical creations...

Gilberto Gil e Caetano Veloso durante o exílioInstituto Gilberto Gil

"... ; remote action controls that increase our mobility and ability to act and create. Because these are the ideas that occur throughout the three songs."

Gilberto Gil em cena do filme O Demiurgo (1971)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Cérebro Eletrônico is a futurist song that seems to predict something that is commonplace today: artificial intelligence, with its widespread benefits and the risks of losing control of it, as foretold by the British author George Orwell in his book 1984. 

The song, however, was only a brief part of what Gil was beginning to see and experience in the middle of the Cold War: the space race and the advent of IBM computers capable of calculating distances between the Earth and space for NASA, with all their exaggerations and repercussions.

Gilberto Gil durante o exílio em LondresInstituto Gilberto Gil

Those computers which, after the Cold War, would become smaller and be used for friendlier, more human purposes.  

Gilberto Gil, o filho Bem Gil (guitarra e violão de aço) e Sérgio Chiavazzolli (guitarra e bandolim) na estreia carioca do show Banda Larga Cordel, no Vivo Rio (2008-10-18)Instituto Gilberto Gil

It is interesting to note Gil's conciliatory approach towards the future uses of new technologies: he never sets them apart from the human dimension and what they have or may offer that is relational, allowing them to bridge hearts and minds. 

 Strictly speaking, Gilberto Gil does not believe in the (dominator) matrix, because he always grounds the discussion in humankind's ability to control machines and not the other way round, as the Cérebro Eletrônico lyrics say:

Because I am alive 
Oh, I am very alive 
And I know 
That death is our primitive impulse 
And I know 
That no electronic brain will help me 
With its iron buttons and its glass eyes."

Gilberto Gil em ensaio para o show Futurível, em seu estúdio (2010-11-01)Instituto Gilberto Gil

The Futurist Contemplates the Future

The song Futurível (which combines the Portuguese words for possible future: futuro possível) also featured on that same 1969 album. Gil himself said about the song: "Futurível goes further, to the point of proposing a possible future ("Futurible"—yet another product of concretism). 

Gilberto Gil e integrantes da Banda de Pife Princesa do Agreste no estúdio, durante ensaio para o show Futurível (2010-11-01)Instituto Gilberto Gil

"...The ‘I’ in the song is the scientist who owns the technology (a more advanced extraterrestrial), talking to the average person (the guinea pig) about a trial they will undergo before they can enter the new era..." 

Gilberto Gil e o letrista da banda Grateful Dead, John Perry Barlow, durante ensaio para o show Futurível, no estúdio do músico brasileiro (2010-11-01)Instituto Gilberto Gil

He says: 'Look, you are being taken into a new stage of humanity, but don't worry, it's all perfectly natural.'" 

But the lyrics are not a dialogue between the one who is about to mess with the "system," and the one who will have his life altered and his story written by new codes: 

"You have been summoned to be transmuted into energy 
Your second stage as a humanoid begins today 
Stay calm, we are going to begin the transmission 
My system is going to change 
Your size 
Your body will be transformed 
Into a beam and transported 
Into space to be pieced together 
Many light years away 
From here 
The new cohesion 
Will give you another mortal heart."


Gilberto Gil pelas lentes do fotógrafo Luiz Garrido, Agosto de 2008, From the collection of: Instituto Gilberto Gil
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Gilberto Gil em ensaio para o show Futurível, em seu estúdio (2010-11-01)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Around the World, Comrade!

Another key aspect of Gilberto Gil's relationship with the future is that he uses his music and lyrics to draw people's attention to the inescapable interchange between technology and tradition.

 Far from these being exclusive categories, Gil sees technology as a way of communicating between worlds; a way of building bridges for sharing and exchanging.

Gilberto Gil em ensaio para o show Futurível, em seu estúdio (2010-11-01)Instituto Gilberto Gil

He follows the same rule book as his friend Edgar Morin (a French anthropologist, sociologist, and philosopher) and Umberto Eco (an Italian writer, philosopher, semiologist, linguist, and bibliophile). Their view is that, despite offering the allure of the new, technologies and media value—or should value— ...

Gilberto Gil em foto do encarte do álbum Parabolicamará (1991)Instituto Gilberto Gil

...the ancient, the traditional, that which is human, and that which emanates from artifacts and mentifacts (the ideas, values, and beliefs of a culture). This view can be seen in songs like Parabolicamará (1991) on the album of the same name, whose title is a play on words, combining satellite technology (parabólica) with the word comrade (camará) from the ancient art of capoeira. 

Outdoor do show Parabolicamará (1993)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Parabolicamará
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Gil's Parabolicamará tour took in the whole of Brazil

Caderno com rascunho da música O Fim Da História Página 2 (1982)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Draft lyrics revealing that the song Desencobrimento became O Fim da História

Caderno de anotações de Gilberto Gil Página 24Instituto Gilberto Gil

The song Serafim featured in the Parabolicamará song list.

The Parabolicamará concert started futurist

The song mixed past and future

Gilberto Gil em show da turnê nacional do álbum Banda Larga Cordel (2008)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Banda Larga Cordel
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Merging Banda Larga and Cordel

Such a fusion can also be found in the 2008 song Banda Larga Cordel from the album of the same name. It, too, starts from this poetic communication between worlds, opening up an expressway to other horizons. His lyrics say:

The whole world in a broad discussion
The neuroscientist, the economist
Opinion of someone who lives on paved streets 
Opinion of someone who's not on the list
Opinion of someone who says no.”

Banda Larga Cordel cleverly creates a rich metaphor combining two threads: one that connects the whole world, and another that entwines readers and writers of a very specific type of Brazilian literature from a particular time and place: literatura de cordel or string literature.

Detalhe da mão de Gilberto Gil durante show do álbum Banda Larga Cordel (2008-10-31)Instituto Gilberto Gil

It derives its name from the string on which these booklets are hung on display on market stalls, mainly in northeastern Brazil.

Cartão da Academia Brasileira de Literatura de Cordel a Gilberto Gil (2007)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Written in rhyming verse and illustrated with woodcuts, they weave poetic stories on themes that are only too human. Banda larga, or broadband, on the other hand, is the thread that connects the planet at high speed, making its borders disappear. 

E-mail de Fafá Giordano com release da turnê Banda Larga, de Gilberto Gil Página 1Instituto Gilberto Gil

The text reveals the musician's interest in new technologies.

First part of the press release for the Banda Larga Cordel album

Communication is the focus of Gil's futurist work

Caderno com rascunho de composições e anotações diversas de Gilberto Gil Continuação do Rascunho da música de Máquina de Ritmo, de Gilberto GilInstituto Gilberto Gil

Draft version of the song Máquina de Ritmo from his Banda Larga Cordel album

Carta de Frédéric Dassas a Gilberto Gil com anexo de itens de exposição sobre a música brasileira na França Item de exposição temporária sobre a música brasileira no Museu da Música de Paris,, From the collection of: Instituto Gilberto Gil
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Gilberto Gil pelas lentes do fotógrafo Luiz Garrido (Agosto de 2008)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Pela Internet
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On the Internet, Not the Telephone

The song Pela Internet (On the Internet), which Gil recorded in 1996 for his 1997 album Quanta, Gil reveals his amazement at having the world at his fingertips through a global computer network.

In this new era, opting to use the Internet means there is no need to wait for a line, leave messages through other people, or experience poor-quality sound. Gil's track is a tribute to the old samba song Pela Telefone (By Telephone), referencing the original and bringing it into the modern era. 

Gilberto Gil em seu apartamento no Rio de Janeiro pelas lentes do fotógrafo Luiz Garrido (1994)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Written by Donga and Mauro de Almeida, Pelo Telefone was the first phonographic recording ever made in Brazil when it was recorded in 1917. It, too, told of the wonders of how life was being shaped by technology and distances shortened by telecommunications. 

E-mail de Mariângela de Luna para Cristina Doria sobre contrato de patrocínio do livro Todas as Letras E-mail de Mariângela de Luna para Cristina Doria sobre contrato de patrocínio do livro Todas as Letras (12/13/2001)Instituto Gilberto Gil

There is an unusual story behind Gil writing Pela Internet. In 1996, his wife, Flora, went to IBM with the suggestion that Gil should write a song that would be released in real time on the Internet.

Gilberto Gil em seu apartamento no Rio de Janeiro pelas lentes do fotógrafo Luiz Garrido (1994)Instituto Gilberto Gil

The aim was make it the first song ever to be streamed live in Brazil, just like Pelo Telefone had made history 80 years earlier.

Mensagem de Milton Nascimento deixada a Gilberto Gil por telefone Mensagem de Milton Nascimento deixada a Gilberto Gil por telefone (Década de 1990)Instituto Gilberto Gil

This exciting concept and challenge lit up Gilberto Gil's mind, and he drew on his own, unique brilliance to write lyrics that would continue to build links between past and future. 

Mensagem de Milton Nascimento deixada a Gilberto Gil por telefone TextoInstituto Gilberto Gil

One example is his rewording of the song Pelo Telefone, in which he updated the lines... 

"Rio's chief of police 
tells me on the cell phone
that a game of video poker 
is being played in Praça Onze!"

Flora Gil posa para ensaio fotográfico de Leo AversaInstituto Gilberto Gil

Driven by Flora's dream and Gil's poetic flash of inspiration, the teams at IBM, the telecommunications company Embratel, and the newspaper O Globo pooled their technical resources and worked for months to make the idea happen. 

Of course, live streaming is so commonplace nowadays that anyone with a smartphone and Internet connection can do it. A curious footnote was the name of the IBM software used for the real-time streaming: IBM Bamba, perhaps in tribute to samba and to Donga, Mauro de Almeida, and Gil.

The engineer and systems analyst Mauro Segura gave an account of the operation in his blog:

"On the morning of December 14, 1996, there were a lot of comings and goings at Embratal's offices on Avenida Getúlio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro. The building was close to IBM's premises on the same avenue. There were dozens of people moving around: specialists and technicians from IBM and Embratel, the O Globo team, musicians, and producers, and there were cables everywhere (no Wi-Fi back then). The whole place looked like a war scene. Everything was being set up for the big event. It was hugely complex; everything was so new, and enthusiasm was running high. There were big crates of musical equipment coming in and rumors about Gilberto Gil's arrival. It left the team in a state of great excitement, especially considering this was a Saturday and not a normal working day. The project was a success! The song was released and streamed live on the Internet the same day, in front of an exclusive and ecstatic audience, in a cramped room full of equipment, cables, technicians, and buttons, along with Gil's entire band, who had their musical instruments tuned to a frenzied pitch. Until that day, live broadcasts only happened on radio or TV. It was a magical day, which O Globo and the wider press reported as a milestone for music and Brazilian technology. Pela Internet would go on to be a hit in subsequent years."

Gilberto Gil no show da turnê do álbum Quanta no Parque Ibirapuera (1997)Instituto Gilberto Gil

After making history for getting art and technology to work hand in hand, Gilberto Gil included Pelo Internet on his Quanta album. This was another piece of work reflecting his interest and studies in art, science, and the mystical. 

Past, present, and future—all in flux under the songwriter's watchful eye—are contained in a space the size of what he calls an "antena parabolicamará," combining the Portuguese for satellite dish, antena parabólica, with the word camará, meaning comrade. Gil sets out his inspired predictions in a timeline in which he can always anticipate what is to come.

Gilberto Gil no show da turnê do álbum Quanta, no Canecão (1997)Instituto Gilberto Gil

 In 1969, his song Cérebro Eletrônico (Electronic Brain) foresaw artificial intelligence, thanks to his careful observations of what was happening on the path humanity was taking. In 1991, Gil also predicted the Internet before it became popular, in these lines:

Capa do álbum Parabolicamará, de Gilberto Gil (1992)Instituto Gilberto Gil

"The light wave
As quick as a lightning bolt 
The time Rosa used to take
To straighten the basket
When she felt it was about to slip
All around the world, comrade
The world goes around, comrade." 

Gilberto Gil pelas lentes do fotógrafo Luiz Garrido (Agosto de 2008)Instituto Gilberto Gil

Em 1996, ele faz o futuro, transformando em realidade a transmissão ao vivo, que só se popularizaria 20 anos depois.

Credits: Story


Exhibit credits

Text and research: Ceci Alves
Editing: Chris Fuscaldo
Assembly: Chris Fuscaldo
Copyediting: Isabela Marinho and Laura Zandonadi

General credits

Editing and curation:
 Chris Fuscaldo / Garota FM
Research - music: Ceci Alves, Chris Fuscaldo, Laura Zandonadi and Ricardo Schott
Research - Ministry of Culture: Carla Peixoto, Ceci Alves and Chris Fuscaldo
Subtitles: Anna Durão, Carla Peixoto, Ceci Alves, Chris Fuscaldo, Daniel Malafaia, Fernanda Pimentel, Gilberto Porcidonio, Kamille Viola, Laura Zandonadi, Lucas Vieira, Luciana Azevedo, Patrícia Sá Rêgo, Pedro Felitte, Ricardo Schott, Roni Filgueiras e Tito Guedes
Data editing: Isabela Marinho and Marco Konopacki
Gege Produções Review: Cristina Doria
Acknowledgements: Gege Produções, Gilberto Gil, Flora Gil, Gilda Mattoso, Fafá Giordano, Maria Gil, Meny Lopes, Nelci Frangipani, Cristina Doria, Daniella Bartolini e todos os autores das fotos e personagens da história
All media: Instituto Gilberto Gil
*Every effort has been made to credit the images, audios and videos and correctly tell the story about the episodes narrated in the exhibitions. If you find errors and/or omissions, please contact us by email atendimentogil@gege.com.br

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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