The violist Neymar Dias and the contrabassist Igor Pimenta have been friends for 15 years. When they meet, they always talk about soccer and music. They don’t always agree about soccer: Neymar supports Santos team and Igor supports Corinthians team, but when it comes to music they agree in many aspects, including their passion for the Beatles. As a result of this Beatles fever, they created the “Come Together Project” (Borandá, 2015), which will be released after two years of hard work with the support of the Cultural Action Program of the Government of São Paulo State (Proac). Since it is a project developed by fans of the British band, there is deep respect for their work, and is it not a simple cover. “We took the original arrangements and turned them into a viola and double bass orchestra. In some songs, the bass is used the same way as Paul McCartney did; in others, I play in the viola the tunes from the Beatles’ chorus”, explains Neymar. “To get to the essence, we had to be very selective; we looked for the chemistry, for the detail that summarizes it all”, said Igor. The idea for the “Come Together Project” started in 2012, when Neymar decided to play some songs from the British band. He chose the ones that would fit the instrument characteristics, such as songs that would sound good with the open strings of the viola. After creating the first three arrangements for the viola and the double bass, he decided to show them to his friend, who became his partner on the project. “The sound of the viola fitted really well with the double bass; sometimes it seems that there is only one instrument”, says Neymar. The repertoire includes the songs that sound better in the instrumental duet. “In my life” is the first song in the album – a version influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), one of Neymar’s favorite composers. In the original Beatles’ song, the producer George Martin changed the piano so it sounded like a harpsichord, but the duet’s version sounds like “Concerto for Two Violins”, from the German composer. We can also note Bach’s influence at the end of “The long and winding”, with the cantata “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”. The next song is “Girl” – one of the rare moments when the musicians improvise. They avoid the style “theme-solo-theme” and only improvise when the harmony leads to a solo. “There is a country calmness throughout the album”, wrote the pianist and composer André Mehmari in the foldout. The country style is given by the viola and is felt in the arrangements and in the essence of the songs. In the hands of the duet, songs like “And your bird can sing” and “Mother nature’s son” seem to have been written in the Brazilian countryside. “Although we are experts in playing the viola, playing the Beatles’ songs in country style just because of the instruments was never the idea. It happened naturally, due to the tunes”, explains Igor. In fact, the musician avoided any version that could sound burlesque. “We did not want to make ‘Beatles in viola’, so we took another direction”, adds Neymar. This instrument goes well even with George Harrison’s “Indian theme”. At the beginning of “If I needed someone”, the duet plays a medley with other tunes from the same composer, and the viola sound reminds the zither. The album also contains the songs “Hello, goodbye”, “When I’m 64”, “She’s leaving home”, “Can’t buy me love”, “And I love her”, “Norwegian wood” and “Ob-la-di, ob-la-da”. All songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, except “If I needed someone” (George Harrison). Before registering the work, Neymar and Igor played this repertoire for two years in bars and small nightclubs, which helped improve the project. It took them only two days to record the album in Gargolândia, a studio located in a farm in Sao Paulo state. “Come Together Project” is an intimate portrait from the Beatles, made by two fans that took their work with devotion and created something new, capable of surprising even the most enthusiast beatlemaniacs.