Invocación

Some aficionados of Latin American music can listen to the swaying rhythms of salsa or the rippling beats of son for hour upon hour without ever feeling the need for anything different. For those of us who can’t, Cuban-Swiss violinist and vocalist Yilian Cañizares offers something far more exciting. Invocación is a sequence of ten emotionally charged songs that explore such a diversity of rhythms and ideas that at times you wonder if you have jumped to a new track or missed a bridge. But what Cañizares and her three able allies – on piano, bass and percussion – are doing is deconstructing, recomposing and testing the limits of Cuban forms.

Jazz is their main tool, but there are lots of classical-inflected reworkings and an occasional shimmer from the urban scene. Because the frontwoman's voice is so meanderingly mellifluous, and because an Afro-Cuban vibe underpins every single track, the album never veers towards mere experimentalism, even while it stridently avoids cliché. A huge range of moods come through, too, from the sweet melancholy of ‘Lucero’ to the cool contemplativeness of ‘Iya Mi’. There is even a sultrily sexy cover of ‘Non, Je ne Regrette Rien’. A stunning and stylish offering from a natural songwriter and performer.