Rompiendo Aguas

The name of this duo, made up of Gerona-born Silvia Pérez Cruz and Israeli Ravid Goldschmidt, doesn’t refer to the cute woolly camelid of the High Andes but, the liner notes say, to the Hebrew word meaning ‘towards the sea. The pair, we are told, are responsible for the album’s hang and vocals. Pérez Cruz’s singing is engagingly swoony and rapt – not unlike Madredeus’s Teresa Salgueiro. Her fados are similarly freestyle and sweet rather than sombre, while her flamencos and soleas are subdued. The hang is ‘a melodic instrument created in Switzerland in 2011 based on Trinidad & Tobago steel drums. Forget the energetic vigour of Mas, however, and imagine a steel drum scaled down to midget size. It’s probably best known for its use by the Mercury-nominated Portico Quartet. Despite this odd mixture of influences and idiosyncrasies, Rompiendo Aguas just about works. At times, the hang has a plinky, almost electronic sound, with the resonance of a small gong, and at others it’s earthier, like a woodblock or xylophone; it sounds vaguely Oriental and ambient, providing a percussive melody that wanders here and there on the ground while Pérez Cruz soars heavenward in Spanish, Portuguese, English and Hebrew. A bit of a novelty, but this duo is not merely a niche act and Rompiendo Aguas will grow on you if you give it a chance.