Ao Mar

‘Ão’ is a specific sound in Portuguese, a real headscratcher for most non-native speakers. Maybe thinking of it as an exotic sound for an international crowd, this Belgian quartet named itself Ão, picking up on the frontwoman Brenda Corijn’s Portuguese-Mozambican roots. And it really suits them, because there is something quite unique in their music: picture Madredeus with a smooth trip-hop background. Check out ‘Mulher’ or ‘Guardar’, songs deeply bathed in melancholy and nostalgia, as if each tune is trying to grasp a blissful moment that just went by. Often compared to Arooj Aftab or James Blake, Ão make a similar use of electronics, laying the grounds for Corijn’s touching vocals.

Ao Mar (To the Sea) is a soothing set of downtempo and midtempo songs, unrushed, that effortlessly fuse acoustic guitar with sprinkles of dub, Morcheeba’s sweet brand of trip-hop with worldly percussions, while spraying out lyrics that take on a feminine family heritage. Singing both in Portuguese and in English, Corijn’s original voice helps to shape these sort of liquid songs, being the earthly element in tracks as dreamy and calming as ‘Meninas’, ‘Mulher’ and ‘Speak’. ‘Vazio’, on the other hand, wanders off to a more anxious, and equally intriguing, setting.

Never making a fuss about its musical choices, Ao Mar ends on a high note with the subtle beauty of ‘More’, a percussion-ridden song, with Brenda Corijn accordingly floating over it.