L'Amazone: Le Chant des Fleuves

The Amazon has been imagined as a tree, its trunk passing from Brazil through Colombia and into Peru, with branches stretching deep into many other countries. Its indigenous peoples, wildlife, watercourses and forests are under threat; from loggers, soya farmers, presidents, tourism and global warming. This wonderful, at times wondrous, double CD – which follows the river from mouth to source via 27 superb songs – couldn't be more timely. The opening track reminds us of the Amazon's vital link with Africa. Dona Onete, a former teacher and union leader native to Marajó Island near Belém who released her debut aged 73, taps the Afro-Brazilian carimbó tradition on the exuberant ‘Boi Guitarreiro’. She also establishes the celebratory, hopeful spirit that pervades this collection. Brazil dominates the first disc, with a psychedelic-Western turn by guitarist Rosivaldo Cordeiro, pounding percussion from the Bumba-Meu-Boi festival, Amazonian jazz by Karine Aguiar, to name just a sample. The disc closes with the shamanistic ‘Piaruainai’ by Venezuela's Cuntinamo, recorded in 1978 by British ambient pioneer David Toop.

On the second disc are nine Peruvian numbers and one each from Bolivia, Brazil and Colombia. Standouts include Pedro Bernal Mendez's fittingly genre-crossing frontier ballad ‘Mariquinha’, Manoel Cordeiro's inflectiously jaunty instrumental ‘Cumbia da Simone’ and the trippy cumbias amazónicas by veteran Peruvian stars Los Wembler's (sic) de Iquitos and recent revivalists El Cacique de Menkoremón.

Dance and musical culture along the river is rich, diverse, popular and political; these songs range from funk to field recordings, as befits a watercourse linking the Europe-facing Atlantic coast to the sky-seeking Andes. These are the magical, magnificent roots of the tree of rivers. A superb booklet in French and English accompanies this important and inspired compilation.