Meninas de Programa", recorded by Gilberto Gil, is a social-political meditation about the underaged prostitutes of Bahia. The musical base is a mixing of Alex Mesquita's guitars and sounds sampled throughout the CD. Brazilian rhythms thus creating an intricate inlay, which seems to result in a techno sound. At the end of the tune explodes the drums of "Lactomia" the new percussion group of Carlinhos Brown.

The other side of "Meninas de Programa" is "Mistério de Afrodite", a song for the voices of Teresa Salgueiro and Caetano Veloso. The subject is the Afro-Brazilian girl, the romantic type, in love with a man who lives on the other side of the ocean. The music is a bolero-habanera superimposed with an Afro-Brazilian rhythm played by electronic bells. The melodic structure underlines the Portuguese-African roots of the feelings of the girl in the song.

Zeca Baleiro, the new voice from Brazil, sings "Exílio", a song about exile. The melodic ballad contrasts with the background beating of hip-hop recorded in one of the most desolated suburbs of Salvador Bahia, the Bairro da Paz.

"Cat's" is a homage to the world of names and colors of Caetano Veloso. The song, recorded by Virgínia Rodrigues, has the melodic line of the guitar and strings alternated by the samba-maracatu on piano and the agueré rhythm of atabaques (ritual Afro-Bahia percussion).

"O Amor", recorded by Margareth Menezes and Arnaldo Antunes, speaks of love in all its aspects. Mixed to a techno afoxé, the percussion base is Ijexá, rhythm of the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé. It represents Oxum, the goddess of fresh waters, rain and rivers and symbol of sensuality and fertility, such as Venus-Aphrodite.

Toi" is an energetic song with erotic lyrics. It's a reggae where Carlinhos Brown sings lead vocals, backing vocals and vocal percussion.

"Ondas", for the lead singer of the Portuguese group Madredeus, Teresa Salgueiro and Zeca Baleiro, begins as a valse-barcarole whose melody has a simple acoustic guitar line, little by little joined by percussion, bringing the rhythm of reggae to a point where it encounters ritual rhythms of candomblé, exploding into a typical Northeastern "Barravento".

"ão" is a poem by Augusto de Campos about the Portuguese language in its most musical definition: the João (Gilberto) of Tom (Jobim). Caetano Veloso sings the melody in counterpoint with the text spoken by the poet. After more then thirty years of friendship and artistic cooperation, it is the first time they record a piece together.

"Velada ou Revelada", it is a song for solo voices of Virgínia Rodrigues and Nuno Guerreiro. The lyric is a meditation about the role of poetry in language and music. The choice for solo voices was made to underline the poetry and beauty of those voices. Olodum percussion appears and disappears in this "vocal landscape", with simple and direct rhythms in their spontaneous manifestations, ever changing and increasing in improvised solos. The result is a blend of the sensuality of solo voices and the power of rhythm one feels in the streets of Salvador Bahia.

"Abraça o Meu Abraço" is from a poem by Arnaldo Antunes, who also sings the song. The voice of Antunes received a motion-picture soundtrack treatment created by electronics and the use of a rare and surprising instrument, the contrabass sax, played by the contemporary musician Daniel Kientzy. Two soloists of Olodum group, with their "musical lines", blend in, and at the same time create the contrast in the music.

Tom Zé performs a multilingual and onomatopoeic piece, "Down, Down, Down". The first part is like a kletzmer song, then new elements, step by step, transform the piece into a surprising Northeastern Brazilian rhythmical line, offering free vocal improvisations.

"Este era un gato", is the song of "Alice in Wonderland's" Cheshire cat, in Spanish and English. It is a linguistic and musical mirror. The melody, like the cat's smile, appears and disappears. It was recorded by the Portuguese group Ala dos Namorados with the contra-tenor Nuno Guerreiro as vocalist.