Nisa Criola

Mariana Ramos résume ainsi l’enregistrement acoustique au Cap-Vert de ces treize chansons miraculeuses, gorgées de sensualité, d’une gaité instinctive et d’un vague à l’âme se délectant du souvenir du bonheur passé, une rêverie ravissante et si simple appelée sodade.

In Cape Verde, we had no access to electronic instruments, said Tchiss Lopes, a Cape Verdean singer based in Rome. In Europe, we had access, but we had to adapt. Audiences expected electronic sounds, but we still stayed true to our sound. In the 1980s, that feeling transpired across Lisbon, Paris, Rotterdam, and Boston, as one the largest waves of migration from a single country, propelled by political instability and economic uncertainty, sent thousands of Cape Verdeans to the West’s cities.