Morttagua has had a great year and his label Timeless Moment has asserted itself as Brazil’s leading progressive label.

Hi Morttagua, tell us about you. 

Morttagua: I am 32 years old, I live in Copacabana in front of the Beach (can’t complain about this). I have been producing other genres since 2005 and electronic music since 2009 and what got me hooked was my first rave in 2006 in Rio. I only went to this rave because I really wanted to spend time with a girl from my neighbourhood that was supposedly going too but she never showed. What happened that night in the rave changed my life forever.

So we heard a lot of comments about the scene in Brazil from numerous artists. Alex Stein mentioned the scene favours the same artists all the time, so it’s practically the same line-ups at every party. How do you find it? Is there a thriving progressive underground scene?

When progressive was the big thing in the world in the early 2000s Brazil scene was only focused on techno, Psy trance and commercial House. For many years I felt like a lone ranger in Brazil, being one of the very few that produced the style alongside fellow producers DNYO and Andre Sobota. But now, since 2015, we have a lot of great producers and djs coming up with the progressive sound in Brazil and getting really popular like Blancah, Alex Justino, L_cio and Sonic Future.

We also have guys like Victor Ruiz, Touchtalk and Alex Stein who produced a totally different style and are really big in Brazil. They started migrating a couple of years ago to the techno-progressive sounds, which is huge and very important for our scene. So I feel good times are finally coming.

How often are you playing in Rio? 

Morttagua: I really don’t do many gigs in my own city unfortunately. Most of my gigs are outside of Rio State, throughout Brazil, especially in the South where I play many times a year in clubs such as Green Valley, Music Park etc. The electronic music scene in Rio is a bit too commercial and progressive is still a bit tabu around Rio promoters.

How would you describe the Morttagua sound and philosophy towards your music for those who haven’t heard your stuff before?

Morttagua: It’s a sound that comes from the heart, always trying to mix emotive harmonies and melodies with dance floor grooves. I also like to make my tracks really unique from another, don’t like to have a specific template. Being it more deep, more techno, more trance or more house, I am always progressive in my productions. That’s just who I am.

So you formed the label Timeless Moment. What forced you to go it alone?

Morttagua: Well, I have been releasing for many years on a wide range of labels, from the big ones such as Armada, Black Hole, to the more underground such as Baroque, Iboga etc, gaining great respect from international artists and great experience on how to properly run a label.

Also In Brazil I am recognized as one the “progressive faces” and have gained huge respect, from both the underground and the commercial scene, toward my productions. Having not changed genres around like most of the Brazilian producers did made me really respected in my country. I was always true to the “real” progressive sound from my beginning and I was able to stick it to it through the worst times possible during the “EDM” era.

So with Beatport finally fixing it’s genres I felt that it was the perfect time to use my reputation to build a brand that will help make the progressive sound bigger in Brazil. Since we have a new crop of melodic techno and progressive producers rising in the country I felt that would be important for them to have support and help with a top notch Brazilian label.

Also “Techno” is finally back crossing over with progressive, so I felt that all stars were aligned for me to do something great for Brazil and for the artists. And I think we are on the right pathway. We have some huge names confirmed for 2018 and we will be doing label parties throughout Brazil this new year to really make our progressive scene a force to reckon in the world, well, at least this is what I hope.

How would you describe what you’re doing at Timeless Moment and what differentiates what you’re doing from other labels?

Morttagua: I would describe as an effort to finally make the Progressive Scene grow in Brazil. A collective effort to help the artists and our scene. I want international artists that I love to be recognised and come tour in Brazil and I want my fellow Brazilian producers to be recognised internationally. My dream was always to be able to go clubbing and to listen to the sound I love, but I rarely could do this in Brazil. But things are changing and I am really glad that we are contributing to the process.

About our differences, I think a major one is that we don’t sign “template” tracks, or have a specific formula of sound. The name of the label was all thought around tracks that would bring you into a unique moment, a Timeless Moment. So I like to sign tracks that are really original, where the artist can really have the freedom to create something without being chained in a specific template sound.

Also one of our differences is that I am not limiting the label to specific “friends”only, like some other labels do around here, where they don’t build their releases only around the music, but because of a good contact, manager and booking agencies.

I am signing only around the music, its all about the music and always for the music.

If the artist is a newcomer or a big name, I don’t care, I will only sign something that I would actually play live or in my podcasts. I also have a very personal approach to my artists, talking to them regularly always trying to get the best results for their release, even promoting more their releases than my own releases, really leaving all the ego out of the business.

Big egos have no place in Timeless Moment.

What gigs do you have in the pipeline?

There are some really great ones lines up for December-Jan. My debut on Matahari Super club, I will be back to Underline, the underground dance floor of the great Green valley Club and we will be running the first Timeless Moment party in Rio in January.

What releases we expect from you and the Timeless Moment team soon

Morttagua: About my releases, I have many lined up on Timeless Moment, singles and remixes and my debut album for mid 2018 . Also have some remixes for other labels but I can’t say which ones for now. For the timeless moment team we have an upcoming EP from Sonic Future, a close friend and one of my favourite artists and an EP from the upcoming talent duo ‘Uncloak’, from Rio, which I personally think is one of the best releases of the year. Great times are coming!

We also just released a yearbook compilation, which fans can check out here