Our Ancestors Swam to Shore

Uninhabited until the Portuguese turned up in the 15th century, São Tomé is a volcanic island out in the Atlantic off the west coast of Africa that became a dumping ground for convicts and slaves who were brought there to work in the plantations. Now the globe-trotting producer Ian Brennan has visited to record a series of field recordings consisting mostly of sturdy, percussion-backed chants on which both men and women take the lead – though with a brief burst of what sounds like a home-made harmonica added in. Brennan loves to give his recordings a dramatic back-story, so the title suggests the islanders are descended from shipwreck survivors, while the tracks have colourful titles. ‘We Ran Out of Petrol at Sea & Lost Everything’ is a lively chant in which a female chorus responds to the male singer, while the even more intriguingly-titled ‘Sister, Are You With My Husband (You Can Have Him)’ is an echoing piece lasting a mere 48 seconds.