Candura

Here at Cosmopolite, we have a particular soft spot for those rare bands that somehow become the stuff of legend before they have even had the chance to release much music. Candura is one of those bands.

Before they had released a single song, or made much noise on Instagram, word had already started to spread. And before they had really had the chance to introduce themselves to the world, they were already booked for SPOT Festival and Copenhagen Jazz Festival in Denmark, as well as Øyafestivalen.

Which, of course, brings us to the slightly annoying question: are they actually as good as everyone says they are?

As far as we can tell, the answer is yes — and then some.

At the centre of the band is Gabriela Garrubo, born in Brazil, with Portuguese as her musical language and Brazil’s rich musical heritage as a natural part of her expression. Around her are Sigmund Vestrheim on drums, Leo Geller on bass, Ole Petter Ålgård on keys, and Erlend Mokkelbost as musical director — all of them coming from rather different corners of the Norwegian music scene.

And that is exactly where things start to get interesting: in the meeting between the Brazilian and the Norwegian, between different musical traditions and personalities that might not, at first glance, seem destined to end up in the same band.

Mokkelbost has spoken about travelling to Rio around thirteen years ago and becoming “completely enamoured with the music scene there”. Ever since, he has continued digging deeper into Brazilian music, not least the psychedelic Tropicália movement — a musical rabbit hole that still seems to reveal new corners to explore.

Candura is, in many ways, the result of that rabbit hole. Their music is rooted in samba, bossa nova and MPB, but takes a detour through disco, funk, indie, soul and club music, emerging on the other side as something warm, distinctive and, quite simply, very difficult to sit still to.

Their debut single, “Por Aí”, is out now on Jansen Records if you would like a taste of what is to come, with their debut album set for release in 2027.

We are pretty pleased to have Candura at Cosmopolite while they are still new enough for us to pretend we discovered them ourselves.