Chilling, soul gripping and utterly inspiring music from 20 year old duo, Lisa-Kainde and Naomi Diaz, or “Ibeyi.” The Paris-based, French Cubin twins have dubbed themselves aptly as “contemporary negro spirituals.” The apples don’t fall far from the tree, drawing inspiration from their mother, Anga Diaz, an incredible Cuban percussionist.
My story with them dates back a few months:
Once upon a jet lagged morning, around October last year, I stumbled across “River” by Ibeyi on FBi Radio in Sydney. Coffee
in hand, manual stick in the other, I immediately pulled over to Shazam said track. It was love at first Shazam.
Upon further inspection I found equally as beautiful ‘Oya.” I was beyond confused how little coverage there was online – two youtube videos and negative sound cloud links?!
Then my “aha!” moment occurred, the girls were working with boss label, XL recordings, on their releases. Suddenly my knickers un-knotted and all the pieces fell in place; being deeply empathic with music as I am, I took comfort that their music was going to be respectfully and rightfully exposed to everyone with XL recordings.
Today is the day, my day…and now hopefully yours, too. Ibeyi’s full album is available for stream ahead of it’s release on February 17th.
Naomi brings in the sound of two Afro-Cuban percussive instruments, the cajón and batá, whilst Lisa-Kainde is responsible for the vocals and piano work. Word has that the incredible man in charge of XL recordings, Richard Russell, assisted on synth work.
This cultural masterpiece will take you on the most magnificent journey. As you work your way down the album, spherical symbols of life and death immediately come to mind, alluding to their mothers premature death at 45. “Thinking of you,” is an ode to this. At times the soulful album presents sounds of deep prayer which matches well with the sisters’ innocent beauty.
Stream via NPR and pre-order on itunes
Ibeyi Tracklist
1. Eleggua (Intro)
2. Oya
3. Ghosts
4. River
5. Think Of You
6. Behind The Curtain
7. Stranger / Lover
8. Mama Says
9. Weatherman
10. Faithful
11. Yanira
12. Singles 13. Ibeyi (Outro)
(c) Stoney Roads – Read entire story here.