Phoenix 24
When sound turns into cosmos, those who defy classifications are born.
Rio de Janeiro, September 2025.
Hermeto Pascoal, the Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist whose virtuosity transcended genres, has died at the age of 88, according to the Samaritano Barra Hospital in Rio de Janeiro. The musician, born in Alagoas, passed away due to complications from advanced pulmonary fibrosis that had weakened him for years. With his departure, Brazil and the world lose one of the most singular voices in popular music, a figure capable of transforming everyday sounds into sublime art, turning the ordinary from a jug or a bell to the murmur of the wind into structures of unbounded beauty.
Pascoal’s oeuvre resists easy labels. He authored compositions that crossed chorinho, samba, and jazz without fully leaning into any of them, creating instead his own territory marked by sonic experimentation and free invention. A craftsman of sound and an architect of living harmonies, Pascoal combined traditional instruments with unconventional objects such as toys, bells, cans, spoons, imitations of bird calls, water, and wind. Materials that at first seemed improvised always revealed intention, and this capacity to forge an original musical language elevated him to the status of a cult figure not only in Brazil but across the globe.
From his childhood in Brazil’s rural northeast, his albinism separated him from field work and drew him closer to a world of sound. At home, he absorbed the accordion played by his father, the birds’ songs, and the rhythm of the wind. He learned to play everything, from accordion and piano to flute, saxophone, and guitar. He built instruments from whatever was nearby and explored silence as another dimension of sound, not only in the notes but in the spaces between them.
His music accompanied legendary voices like Elis Regina’s. He collaborated with international jazz musicians and appeared on albums that challenged conventions. His fame grew without commercial ambition, built instead on virtuosity, risk, and improvisation. With every piece he suggested that categories are the enemy of art.
News of his passing triggered an outpouring of admiration and testimonies from artists who saw him as a perpetual source of inspiration. Many recalled his presence on stage, with his flowing white hair, his generous beard, his playful smile, and his ability to summon nature and surprise. They remembered him improvising with the unexpected, playing pots, bells, water, and whatever was at hand, always redirecting attention to the invisible dimensions of sound.
Hermeto Pascoal leaves behind a legacy that cannot be contained in records, concerts, or awards. He leaves behind a liberated vision of music, an invitation to avoid repeating formulas, and a permission to explore the uncertain. That vibrant freedom will be his most enduring inheritance, the idea that wholeness can emerge from fragments, that a single sustained note can resonate across millions of souls, and that music is, at its core, perpetual creation and redefinition.
In Brazil and far beyond, his music will continue to resonate as both challenge and sanctuary, a holy remnant of an expanding universe. For the man who invented new sounds also taught that true originality lies not in being different, but in being sincere.
La verdad no se grita: se decodifica en silencio.
Truth is not shouted: it is decoded in silence.