A Brazil-U.S. musical collaboration turns one of the world's richest ecosystems into a living studio and a call for conservation.
WASHINGTON, DC / ACCESS Newswire / November 18, 2025 / The Pantanal, the world's largest tropical wetland, is not just a backdrop for Pantanal Jam. It is the project's co-composer. Born from a shared desire to create music that could honor, listen to, and protect one of the most threatened biomes on the planet, the project began after members of Urbem and Ryan Keberle first visited the region and were struck by its sonic richness and environmental vulnerability.
Pantanal Jam is the result of an unprecedented artistic collaboration between Brazilian ensemble Urbem and New York-based trombonist Ryan Keberle. Rather than adding nature sounds in post-production, the artists spent over a year conducting field research and recording inside the biome. The album, titled Pantanal Jam, and its accompanying documentary short film, Pantanal Jam: A Nature-Made Session, capture this process in its purest form, a true dialogue between jazz improvisation and a living ecosystem.
"The Pantanal doesn't just inspire the music it directs it," says Urbem drummer Bruno Duarte. "There were moments when a single bird call changed the entire structure of a piece. We had to relearn how to listen."
For Keberle, the experience reshaped his relationship with improvisation: "Playing with the landscape taught us to let go of control. The environment had its own tempo, and we followed."
In this project, the Pantanal becomes a living studio
Its unpredictability - the sudden call of a thrush, the low growl of a jaguar, the shift in light over the flooded plains - shaped the tempo, texture, and emotional core of the compositions. Each track is built on this exchange: humans listening deeply to the environment, and the environment responding in its own voice.
But Pantanal Jam is not only about music
It is also a soundtrack for conservation. Listeners are invited not only to explore the album, but also to support the region directly. Donations made through the official website go entirely to organizations working in the Pantanal, funding wildlife monitoring, habitat protection, and environmental education. A portion of proceeds from the album also contributes to these initiatives turning each stream, share, or contribution into tangible impact.
At its heart, Pantanal Jam is also a story of cultural collaboration. The meeting between Urbem's Brazilian roots and Keberle's New York jazz sensibility embodies the project's guiding idea: creativity thrives in connection. Two musical cultures and two artistic perspectives unite under a shared purpose to honor and help protect an extraordinary ecosystem.
Pantanal Jam invites listeners to experience the Pantanal not through images, but through sound - to hear a place that few people in the world will ever visit, yet everyone can help protect. Because in the end, to listen is already to care.
The full album, documentary, project details, and donation links are available at:
Gisele Abrahao - gisele@globalvisionaccess.com
Anna Cecilia Santos - anna.cecilia@globalvisionaccess.com
SOURCE: Global Vision Access
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire