AYOM

Ayom's self titled debut album is a swinging collection of tracks pointing at, and borrowing from, the folk music of Brazil, Angola and Cape Verde with a Mediterranean identity. Blending century old traditions with the black and rhythmical language of lusophone cultures, Ayom defy the purists and provide a hot-stepping and spiritual voyage across the Atlantic till the Mediterranean sea.

Ayom has given Jabu Morales the opportunity to speak a global version of Portuguese that she couldn't previously communicate. Across the album you can also hear Spanish, Yoruba and Kimbundu alongside French Creole.

She sings in her mother tongue, Brazilian Portuguese, on the second single Cachaça and Macarrão referring to Brazilian rum and Italian spaghetti, and is the story of the passion between a Brazilian and an Italian in the group. Featuring the tuba and the flute, it's a baião, that plays with the maracatu rhythm. It's Dixieland jazz under the spell of North Eastern Brazil, a party with Jackson Pandeiro, Hermeto Pascoal and two of the greatest Louis in the business: Luis Gonzago and Louis Armstrong leading the festivities. Like all the tracks, it features Alberto Becucci's accordion, a core element of the Ayom sound, and particularly interesting as it was an instrument brought over by the European colonisers and regarded as a key cultural influence and product from the occupations.

In the album opener Exú, Jabu's Afro Brazilian drum, the zabumba, drives the trip like a religious ceremony and Jabu's repetitive vocals represent the chanting of Yoruba culture and the orixás. Cravo é Menta's swing echoes the Northern Brazilian carimbo style with similarities to South American cumbia. Me Deixe Ser is a deep and reflective coladeira inspired tune from Cape Verde whilst tempos and swingometer max-out on Maré e o Luar, a derivative of the Angolan semba.