Tiganá Santana - The Invention Of Colour (2013) Lossless

Brazil's answer to Nick Drake?

When someone as great as the renowned Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos, describes a compatriot's music as 'like a perfume of rhythmic essence', you take note. Sure enough, the opening plangent chord on Santana's custom five-string 'drumguitar' tells you that you're in for something good. It gets better and better. There's something so delicate and so tasteful about his music that it conjures up those Japanese prints of the 'floating world,' which captivated artists in the late 19th century. A native of Salvador in Bahia, Santana grew up by the ocean and derived inspiration from the floating world of the sea. A would-be diplomat who fortunately chose music, he sings in an impressive range of tongues: from the African Kikongo language to French and English. His hazy, husky voice has been compared to Nick Drake's.

On the tender 'Elizabeth Noon', with its fragile cut-glass strings, you could be listening to Nick Drake's 'Fruit Tree'. But Tiganá Santana is no mere copyist. Neither bossa nova nor nova bossa, this album - recorded in Sweden with a discrete handful of such guests as Mayra Andrade, the Cape Verdean songstress - is the work of a singular artist. Take the sublime title-track, with Santana's wordless Nascimento-esque vocals weaving around Maher Cissoko's kora. Or just sit down with a pot of coffee and savour the whole fabulous creation. You don't have to be a fan of Nick Drake, or Brazilian music, to appreciate this album; it's simply exquisite.
~ songlines