Vida-Código

For Vida-Código -his fourth album and his third on the Swedish Ajabu! label – Tiganá Santana presents very little of the customised ‘drumguitar’ that so characterised the Bahian singer-songwriter's wonderful sophomore album, The Invention of Colour (reviewed in #94). This time around electrified instruments creep in, but always with signature delicacy and taste. On ‘Do Fundo’, for example, Santana reworks a track from his first album with bass, minimal percussion and an electric guitar that's barely amplified. On ‘Palavra de Honra’, the combination of his sultry voice and Aline Falcão's almost subliminal Fender Rhodes suggests an ephemeral dream. And on ‘Ile, Se Eu Não Gostasse de Você’, he and his mother sing to the sole accompaniment of a shaken box of matches. It's like overhearing two passers-by singing to themselves in the street. It's beautiful, but one wishes for more.

Minimalism rules an album that's musically the equivalent of spun silk. Sometimes, though, it seems almost wilfully austere. There are moments of exquisite beauty – when, for example, Alina Falcão's accordion infiltrates ‘Não Vás, Preta’ – but half the tracks seem underdeveloped, as if they are works in progress. The other half are as stunning as one comes to expect from this singular talent.