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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Born and bred in Madagascar, Hanitra Rasonaivo thought she had her identity sorted out until she chanced to see an oddly familiar burial ceremony in a documentary on Indonesia a few years ago. Intrigued, she took her band there, and found herself feeling entirely at home with the language, customs, clothes and food: this, she realised, was where her ancestors had set off from, 2000 years ago. Soul Makassar is the musical result: with its bass foundations recorded in London, and its ornamentation dubbed over the top in Timor, it's a true piece of African-Asian fusion. Her vocal style has a hot, suggestive urgency; her backing on guitar, flute, percussion and the Malagasy valiha--a bamboo tubular zither--wraps her songs in crystalline sonic cascades. The subtext to the lyrics is a multiple message for the folks back home in Madagascar: stop the tribal fighting, treat your women as equals. And it's all acoustic--therapy for the ears. --Michael Church
