Ke Haber

Israeli artist ‘Nani’ Noam Vazana sings and writes in Ladino, a Romance language spoken by Spanish Jews in the 15th century; spoken by about 60,000 people today, it’s considered endangered. To the ear, it’s like an abrasive Spanish, and no doubt its wane has led to much borrowing – as with Welsh. Her fourth solo album opens with the stomping, percussion-driven ‘Çok Seni Severim’, which is like Värttinä crossed with Maghrebi Arab music; the lingo really comes to life here. After this powerful prologue, we drift along on a series of twee ballads that are slightly tropical (‘No Kero Madre’), slightly bluesy (‘No Tiene Hija, No Tiene Amiga’), slightly jazzy (‘Shape of My Heart’) but never very anything.

The Sephardic roots element sneaks in here and there, but it is largely buried by a bid for pop ordinariness, with bland arrangements foregrounding effetely plucked acoustic guitar or charango and muted brass band. The blurb claims the ‘ancient, matriarchal language’ is employed in ‘socially pertinent lyrics, celebrating migration, gender and female empowerment.’ This doesn’t come through in the sound. Track eight, ‘Landarico’, is more potent and the next, ‘Sin Dingun Hijo Varon’, finds Vazana in fine voice. Ladino music, with its ancient texts about sex changes and homoerotic poetry penned by rabbis is fascinating; this album, in trying too hard to update it, dilutes its depth and drama.