Tande-la

Prepare to be blown away: The Creole Choir of Cuba, one of the surefire stars of WOMAD NZ 2011 has released an absolutely STUNNING album, 'Tande-la'. Hear the passionate melodies, wild harmonies and richly textured arrangements of these inspiring vocalists and you will know this is something new from Cuba, the most original vocal sound to come out of the country in a long while.

The Creole Choir's Cuban name Desandann means literally 'descendents' and with the songs on their latest album 'Tande-La' (which translates to 'listen') they tell the stories of their Haitian ancestors who were brought to Cuba to work in near slave conditions in the sugar and coffee plantations. With heartfelt melodies driven by richly textured harmonies and shifting Caribbean rhythms, this is impassioned singing by a unique group celebrating roots, resistance and the irresistible rhythms of life. The Choir sing in Creole, Cuba's second language, a pragmatic fusion of African, French and other languages. It's the language of a people twice exiled: first to Haiti from Africa through the slave trade; then from Haiti to Cuba tricked into second slavery by their French masters after the Haitian Revolution of 1790. Other Haitians arrived in the 20th century fleeing political upheaval, poverty and oppression during the barbaric regime of Papa Doc Duvalier. The Choir - five men and five women hailing from beautiful Camagüey - formed in 1994, a difficult time for Cubans when the economy fell into a black hole following the end of the USSR and of Soviet support for the revolution. Food and electricity were in short supply. The singers decided to re-forge the resistance songs and laments of their forebears, to celebrate the history of their Haitian descendents enslaved to the Caribbean from West Africa. To the songs that had been passed down in their families, they added more modern Haitian sounds.