Ancestors

Built almost solely around the simple spine of his guitar, soulful voice and African percussion, the fourth album from the Cameroonian singer-songwriter follows 2016's splendid Just My Soul. Tere's a sombre and dignified beaut to this all-acoustic set of songs dedicated to his African heritage and his forefathers. Recorded in Paris where he now lives, Aliana sings in French, English and ‘Camfranglais’ and finds poetry in all of them.

The timbre of his voice is somewhat reminiscent of Harry Belafonte and ranges from a smooth, dark baritone voice to a high tenor, which, like fellow Cameroonian Sally Nyolo, he often uses to imitate the sounds of the natural world. At times he also sounds like a less jazzy version of another fellow countryman Richard Bona, and his striking voice is heard at its most potent on ‘For Papa’, sung a capella in his tribal language as a tribute to his late father. The only additional instrumentation to Aliana's acoustic guitar and subtle percussion comes from the splendid Debashish Bhattacharya, who adds his inimitable Indian slide guitar to ‘Fruits Frais’ and ‘Ke Enda Oko’.