Léve Léve: São Tomé & Príncipe Sounds 70s-80s
Bongo Joe (78 mins)
São Tomé and Príncipe isn’t exactly known as a musical powerhouse nation – Songlines has only reviewed one other São Toméan album in the past 20 years – which makes this particular rare groove compilation such an unexpected delight.
The country (the second smallest in Africa) is made up of a series of islands in the Gulf of Guinea. It’s perfectly placed to absorb all the sounds from both West and Central Africa, and the music on this album shows a lovely combination of Cuban-influenced Congolese guitar music and Ghanaian highlife with its own unique twist arising from its past as a Portuguese colony.
When I listened to this album, I was in the middle of a deep midwinter gloom, but by the end of the first track – ‘Mino Bô Bé Quacueda’ by Africa Negra – I was already walking with a bounce in my step. It’s brilliant music for feeling cheery, all sunshine guitars and major third vocal harmonies with just occasional dips into cheesiness.
Featuring nine artists across 16 tracks, Léve Léve presents the glorious and little-known sound of the equatorial Atlantic islands. The front cover is also intriguingly marked ‘Vol. 1,’ so here’s hoping we get to hear more São Toméan music very soon…