Family Atlantica - Family Atlantica - 2013

 

Family Atlantica (2013) is the story of an encounter, when an unthinkable mix of energies, influences and sounds from three continents bathed by the Atlantic, decides to connect to end up recording an album as genuine as it is risky and surprising. An album that evokes the legacies of the Cuban son, the calypso and the deepest Venezuelan folk tradition (Afro percussion and peasant singing) along with Ghanaian higlife, Ethiopian blues, spiritual jazz and psychedelia.

The genesis of Family Atlantica happened four years ago, when the Londoner Jack Yglesias, multi-instrumentalist and producer who has already made history with the jazz project TheHeliocentrics, meets the Venezuelan poet and singer Luzmira Zerpa. They become a couple and when they begin their musical collaboration, the African percussionist Kwane "Natural Power" Crentsil (half Nigerian half Ghanaian) appears, passionate about percussion without borders. Added to the undeniable talent of this trio is the contribution of the Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astatke (piano), three generations of the Zerpa family, the Senegalese griot Nuru Kane (guembri) and the Afro-Cuban combo Yoruba Andabo. Four seasons of rehearsals later, finally sees the light that for the Critics, Manu Chao included, will be one of the albums of the year: his debut, simply titled Family Atlantica.

The charm of the album, recorded between London and Venezuela (Barquisimeto, Sanare and Tacarigua), lies in its multiplicity of sounds, rhythms and musical frequencies: there is Cuban rumba, Venezuelan tune, highlifeghaniano, son, Ethiopian blues and calypso. But no less important is its authenticity, tradition in tune with the present, pleasant doses of nostalgia and sound renewal, the kind to which we are accustomed by the great works that have managed to reinvent the old schools. 

01. Fly Through The Lightning To Speak With The Sun

02. Incantation To The Ancestors

03. Arena

04. Cumbacutiri

05. Libation At The Gate Of No Return

06. Jaia

07. Manicero

08. Pranto Do Banzo

09. Escape To The Palenque

10. El Apamate

11. El Negrero (The Slave Ship)

12. GaitaPsychedelica

13. Myths And Proverbs

14. Clavelito Colorado

15. Eboka Ritual

16. Tamunangue Blues

17. The Griot's Blessing

18. Pescador Saharawi

19. La Familia

20. Speak To The Spirit Of The Sea