Ana Moura - Para alem da saudade (2007) CD-Rip

Ana Moura is universally acknowledged as one of the finest fado singers of the present generation. Her plaintive, smoky vocals has garnereda loyal European following, including members of The Rolling Stones. Whether starkly declaiming or swirling into filigreed crescendos of emotion, Ana's burnished alto personifies fado's darkly sensual credo of wisdom born of pain, grace, and futility, and secual passion perpetually on simmer, despite repeated and increasingly bitter betrayals.

This is a powerful album which is deliciously light-footed at the same time! It has garnered a Best of 2007s Editors' Pick from "The Beat Magazine," among others. Ana Moura is the young fadista of the moment in Portugal, the artist leading the current generation of fado singers. Fado is the poetic, deeply expressive idiom which personifies the Portuguese psyche as it explores such universal themes as lost love, separation, and longing.
Fado literally means destiny, and the music expresses the exquisite longing -- saudade -- for all what fate makes unattainable. Emerging from the working classes at least as far back as the early 19th century Portugal, the music is most often associated with smoky bars and huskily mournfully voiced fadistas. Though often associated with the Portuguese sailors' longings for home from Northern African ports, the music feels far more European than Northern African.
But Ana Maura's fado on this wonderful album manages to capture the smoky sadness of the genre with a voice which is at once longingly husky and lightly spirited. Maura's contralto is not really a "thick" voice like some fadistas'; it is of a thinner, reedier timbre. The music has elements of the joy inherent in simple folk melodies, even while reflecting the saddest of harmonies. An extraordinary combination difficult to describe in words, the effect is aptly summed up in Publico's review as "an emotional work, skin-deep, one that makes you shiver."
There is a strong resonance with awe-inspiring, Cape Verdean music of Cesaria Evora, Cafe Atlanticothough again, Ana's voice is lighter. But both voices are "longing, so long," (this phrase being the title of a gorgeous, totally different Oregon chamber jazz piece fromRoots in the Sky).
The idea of this album as mood or background music is an odd one. I confess, I myself have heard it while "otherwise occupied." And personally I encourage listening to all music anywhere and everywhere, foreground or background. But make no mistake: this music merits your full attention, in the foreground and without distraction. It will fascinate and thrill you down to your toes!