Sêrena – Sérgio Figueira

There is a Sêrena that has arrived on the islands.
The beginning of the album, with the "canto da Sêrena" (Sêrena's song), immediately makes us feel that the path will be: to let ourselves be carried away by sounds that dance in the suspension of an (almost) still world.
But if there is dancing, sometimes floating – but always restless – there is also the marked presence of our traditional rhythms. I then follow the listening, …kind of an inkietason (restlessness)

Against a sound backdrop, cushioned by musicians who have accustomed us to the word "difference" — ranging from the author Sérgio Figueira to Renato Chantre's Lisbon-generation, passing through our guardians of island music: Hernani, Micau, and Voginha, joined by the erudite Stetsenko…Sêrena is told and sung, exalting the female figure with a thousand colors: woman…island…woman-island…mother…woman-myth…in short – Sêrena.
There is the voice of Carla Lima, who appears with a kind of "novelty" that surprises me with its specificity, subtly recalling a "coraçon leve" (light heart) painted decades ago. The percussion, which falls in love with the "bateria" (drums), seems to hit the necessary marks… and when needed. The strumming of the guitars is pure music for us to delight in… there are mixtures of violin and guitar that taste like serene music… and there is also the "whistle"…

On this album, Sérgio works… serenely, with Cape Verdean popular music, in his own appropriate way, through his compositions which, coherently, coexist with other sonorities — such as the flavors of improvised music, world music, and, obviously, the erudite universe. Yes, rooted and open, with a musicality that honors traditional rhythms, but dialogues with other languages. Yes, from improvisation to the erudite universe, in an affirmation of identity, which we so much need to highlight in our production and way of being in Cape Verdean music!
There is a CaboVerde not only present in traditional sonorities, but also in the constant use of our islander elements — especially the sea, which sometimes sways and lulls us, sometimes mixes with the sweet and profound gaze of a woman.—well present in the album's poetry, ranging from love poems to storias kontadu of those who didn't know what love was…
It is absolute satisfaction to hear the affirmation of sonorities so much our own, yet open to the world — especially when that world is part of pieces of sonorities chosen by the composer and performer, Sérgio Figueira.

At a time when we are definitively settling into a chilling musical "sameness," where perhaps the musical class needs to take more risks; in a society where, increasingly, those who choose the stages want the easiest path; in a country where the audience applauds faster and faster; where the evaluations of music and musicians are increasingly based on the hollow opinions of those who become heroes through facilitated information — this Sêrena reaches us in waves made of sea and soul, reminding us that our music is beautiful. That our traditional embraces the world and feeds from it…
The album is composed of themes by Sergio and the cover features the image-painting by Luisa Quiroz, who has accustomed us to mythical beings very present in her painting, as if painting her son's sound… in her debut work. I recall that Sérgio Figueira's previous albums were about Luis Rendall

Thank you, Sérgio Figueira and musicians, for believing in what many no longer even remember… it is your mission and we thank you…