Ibra

With a warm blast of flute curling over gentle birdsong, the stage is set for the fourth album by Eneida Marta from Guinea-Bissau, who is descended from a long line of artists including her Cape Verdean father. Marta has previously explored a host of styles – flamenco, gospel, jazz, Guinean gumbe and the Cape Verdean morna blues – with lyrics sung in Portuguese, Guinean-Creole and occasionally Arabic. Here she pays tribute to the (recently late) Guinean kora genius Ibrahima Galissa, himself one of a long line of maestros and her favourite musician.

A host of supporting players on instruments including piano, cello, percussion and guitars (among the latter is Manecas Costa, one of the first artists to present the rich musical heritage of this tiny West African country tucked between Senegal and Guinea) buoy a voice of almost cleansing purity and light, most effective on slow, spacious tunes including that beauteous opener ‘Alma Na Fala’, the sensuous ‘Amor’ and ‘Paulo Nanki’, a gentle rocker that morphs, joyously, into a salsafied dance piece. Standouts include ‘Homis di Gossis’, a piano-led ode to present fathers, and the heartfelt, string-laden ‘Pena’. A gorgeous work marred only by the occasional heavy-handed production of Athanase Koudou (Salif Keita, Richard Bona), who should have known better.