Tcheka, Atlantic elasticity
Manuel Lopes Andrade, aka Tcheka, has been a key figure at the cutting edge of Cape-Verdean music for ten years now. After acquiring a reputation in Praia and the archipelago of Cape Verde as a whole at the start of the 2000s, he signed to the Lusafrica label in 2002. His first album, Argui!, was released the following year. On it, Tcheka championed the revival of batuque, a traditional beat that originated among the women of his native island, Santiago. Moving on from the record's sometimes over-emphatic production values, the artist rediscovered the delights of acoustic sound on the delectable Nu Monda (2005), a highly personal album that set him in the forefront of Cape-Verdean new wave alongside his friend Lura (he wrote a number of songs for Lura at the time).
Tcheka's vocals showed all his trademark agility, turning from melancholy to a sense of joy with startling ease in just a few seconds. He began to tour the world. Meeting Brazilian singer Lenine in Spain, he recorded a third album under his direction. Longi was released in 2007. A challenging record influenced by Atlantic encounters and exchanges, Longi reflected a cosmopolitan side of Tcheka's personality.
Having won acclaim at home, in Europe and on the African mainland, Tcheka spent a number of years working on the twelve tracks that feature on his fourth album, Dor de Mar, released in autumn 2011. On this coming-of-age record, he reconciles some surprisingly unconventional writing with vocals sharper and steadier than ever before. Produced by José Da Silva and featuring incomparable musicians including bassist Guy N'Sangué and accordionist Régis Gizavo, Dor de Mar ("Sorrow of the Sea") is one of this year's musical confirmations. The very title of the track that lends the album its name reflects Tcheka's environmental concerns, setting him alongside Salif Keita - some of whose vocal intonations he shares, especially on "Pexera Porto", a song that tells of the harsh social realities of the Cape Verde fishermen he knows so well.
In the same way as on "Kriadu Assim", which opens the album with celestial choirs and a perfectly-crafted virtuoso vocal offering, all through the record, Tcheka conjures up an Atlantic culture where acoustic sounds reign supreme. The songs' themes reflect a society gnawed by doubt often related to the working world ("Primeru Djobi" or "Storia Estrada"), but where respect (the soothed "Fla Mantenha") and love (the meaningful "Faka na Prega") always win out in the end.
Magic or tragic, lovers' games form part of the picture - for instance on the magnificent ode to the women of Cape Verde "Forti Bu Dan Cu Stango" - as does the loss of a loved one on "Madalena", an outpouring of compelling insular saudade. Sharp and deft with occasionally growling guitar, "Moça de Classe" tells of a successful determination to carry on with dignity for the love of a special girl.
The crowning points of the album are "Antuneku", a stirring plea for steadfast friendship featuring light vocals and melancholy brass, and "Tchoro Na Morte", whose imploring sobs mourn the loss of a loved one.
Vibrant with energy and radiant talent, Tcheka has consolidated his reputation as one of the greatest male artists in Cape-Verdean music, following in the footsteps of Teofilo Chantre and Bau, bards of a Portuguese-speaking Africa that expresses itself in song.
