Ambarao

It's a long way from the Indian Ocean to the isle of Jura, Scotland where Moiizah's debut album was recorded, but that's the journey made by Malagasy singer-songwriter Rivo Noarivelo. Along the way, he took up residence in Norway, where he assembled the musicians who complete the line-up of Moiizah, and who add a Nordic jazz-rock cool to his Malagasy rhythms. Noarivelo's baritone voice has an attractive burr that evokes Angola's Bonga or Senegal's Wasis Diop while the combination of potent pop melodies and lilting world fusion rhythms put the band firmly in the best global pop traditions of some of Peter Gabriel's work or Paul Simon's Graceland/Rhythm of the Saints era. Noarivelo's compositions deal with both the human condition and the state of the planet, often with a typically African proverbial twist.

Translations are helpfully provided and this reviewer particularly liked the simple profundity of ‘Velon-kira’, which seems to say it all: ‘Music is a journey, music is a language, music is important, music is innocent. Life is beautiful, long live music.’