Suave Bruta

There has recently been a wave of new approaches in Britain and continental Europe to mainland Latin American music, often by transnational figures with roots on both sides of the Atlantic. These hybrid musics are quite varied in emphasis and outlook, but they tend to be rooted in folkloric or popular styles from South America, often using digital samples which are subverted or overlaid by alien materials and compositional forms.

The two heritages that singer, contrabassist and pianist Ëda Diaz draws from are European music, popular and classical, and that of Colombia – itself a variegated map of different musical cultures. Taking a refined and gentle treatment of parranda and vallenato party music of Medellín and the Caribbean coast, throttling back their sweaty insistence with slow moving harmonies and the sensibility of a chansonnière, she has produced a distinctive set of brief and carefully organised songs. Some are fragile, like ‘Brisa’, others livelier like ‘Al Pelo’, which succeeds it, like a marimba-infused salsa nursery rhyme subverted by distortions of sound and rhythm. ‘Tutandé’, on the other hand, is both cheeky and sinister, like a party DJ at the Masque of the Red Death.