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Siren sings at COA
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Bar Harbor Times, Siren sings at COA >>
Siren Sings at COA
The music of the Cape Verde Islands, off the coast of Mauritania, is an amalgam of sounds. There's the syncopated rhythms of batuku with unusual percussive instruments. There's the lament-like mora, resembling the mournful fado of Portugal. There are the djembe drums of West Africa. And there's the funana, driven by accordions, and prohibited by the Catholic Church for a time as too erotic.
These many alluring, rhythmic and disparate sounds come together in the music and voice of the-young singer Lura, who is completing her
first tour of the United States.
Fresh from a spot on New York City's acclaimed globalFEST 2006 lineup, one of Lura's final stops in this country will be Gates Center at College of the Atlantic at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 14.
Lura's special blend of music and percussion, coupled with her compelling performances, brought her a 2006 BBC World Music nomination and some rapturous reviews, such as this from the Saturday Review:
"She has the ability to meld harmonies of hope and despair together like a siren from Cape Verde." But though Lura is now thoroughly identified with the music of her ancestral land, she was not born there. Rather, she was raised in Lisbon, Portugal to immigrant parents in a vibrant immigrant community complete with street dances, parties and plenty of music.
"Key to understanding her appeal is to see her onstage, where her warm, communicative manner, hip-swivelling dances and mellow voice make for a winning combination wrote BBC Radio in nominating her. "Lura brings a fresh, out sider perspective to the traditional music of her ancestral isles, looking beyond familiar morna and coladeira popularized worldwide over the last two decades."
Lura, 30, first studied dance, and has recently become involved in theater. She has issued three albums, most recently "Di Korpu ku Alma". (Of Body and Soul) -her most African work.
02/02/06
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