The record label says:
Regional Barnabé was born, as are so many world music groups, around a table - an encounter between musicians of various cultures and a common language. In this case, they were two Catalan musicians and two Brazilian musicians, all of whom were living in Barcelona and who shared a passion – the choro. The choro itself was born in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro in 1920 (believe it or not, before this, everything was called a “polka”). This new musical style, also known as chorinho, had a differentiated musical form, with a structure in three parts derived from the polka. Some themes have lyrics, almost always added many years after the composition of the music, but they are basically instrumental music. The natural setting for choros is the botequim (a kind of bodega), a Brazilian institution where a “roda de choro” can occur, an occasion at which one eats, drinks and listens to choros, playing them, sharing their fresh, light and never rigid language - slightly racy, sometimes very sophisticated and always profound. Right from the start, the style's vitality gave origin to other kinds of music that have been exported and changed much more, such as the samba and the bossa nova. Regional is the name given in Brazil to groups dedicated to chorinho. A stable “regional” can be made up of one or more solo instruments, with the flute being perhaps the most traditional one. In addition to the flute, other instruments can act as soloists; the mandolin, and the clarinet, for example. The seven-string guitar is notably used as an accompaniment, responsible for playing the baixarias - very expressive countersongs that can have as much protagonism as the melody itself. Then, there is the so-called “center” made up of one or two six-string guitars, and the cavaquinho, of Portuguese origin (a type of ukulele), with the function of bringing the harmony together with the rhythm. The beat is solidified by percussion, with the pandeiro being the main instrument. Since the 1990s, Brazil has been enjoying a resurgence of interest in the choro.