COUNTERCULTURE, MYSTICISM AND NONSENSE IN JORGE MAUTNER’S “UM SALTO NO ESCURO”

Abstract

In this work, we approach the artistic production of singer and composer Jorge Mautner, analyzing the homonymous record Jorge Mautner (1974), which was also known by the title Um salto no escuro [A leap in the dark]. In this article, we intend to situate Jorge Mautner's artistic activity in the social and political context of Brazil in the early 1970s, marked by repression of the military regime and the consolidation of the cultural industry. We point out that it was exactly in an unfavorable political and economic context that the artist restarted his musical career, practicing experimentalism in the search for formal innovations in his countercultural-themed songs. We also verified how the various constituent aspects of the full length album relate to his literary production and to the values and practices of the counterculture movement.