Album review: The Creole Choir of Cuba, Tande-La

The Creole Choir of Cuba, Tande-La album cover. Photo / Supplied.

Rating: 3/5

This choir, who visit Womad next year, sing passionate and richly textured melodies that wend and wind, often tautly and hauntingly like on the female-dominated Maroule, but also proudly and fluently on tracks like Neg Anwo.

Sung in Creole, the songs are about the choir's Haitian ancestors who were brought to Cuba to work as slaves on plantations. It's an intense and commanding listen, yet one of those rewarding ones that is possibly best heard live.