I recently found out that the twin duo Ibeyi (Lisa-Kaindé Díaz and Naomi Díaz) is now completing another evocative album (can’t wait). An interview  with Anupa Mistry (Fader’s Diaspora Issue) provides some background on the new recordings on the yet unnamed album. Interesting to note is that the new album features Spanish rapper La Mala Rodríguez, excerpts of a reading by Claudia Rankine, and lines from Frida Kahlo’s diary, read by the twins’ mother Maya Dagnino. This interview also sheds light on the Franco-Cuban twins’ relationship with Cuba. See excerpts from “Ibeyi’s Home” here [also see previous post Ibeyi’s Home]:

[. . .] Earlier that morning we’d listened to a rough mix of Ibeyi’s forthcoming second album. Like 2015’s self-titled release, the album is produced by Richard Russell, founder of their label XL Recordings, and features crystalline parallel harmonies and minimalist Latin percussion that Russell embellishes with drum machines and twinkling synth lines. Unlike their self-titled debut, which was filled with Yoruba chanting and held the ghosts of their late father, as well as their older sister, Yanira, who died of a brain aneurysm in 2013, the new album feels more playful, present, and much less gothic.

The new album has two tracks explicitly dedicated to life: a lullaby for their 5-year-old niece, Yanira’s daughter, called “Vale,” as well as the shouty resistance anthem, “Deathless.” Feature credits include the mighty saxophonist Kamasi Washington, Canadian pianist Chilly Gonzales, Spanish rapper La Mala Rodriguez, and neo-soul legend Meshell Ndegeocello. The centerpiece is a near seven-minute suite called “Transmission,” which dips between heart-swelling choir vocals and a humid rumba. The song samples Claudia Rankine reading from her acclaimed 2014 dispatch Citizen: An American Lyric, as well as lines from Frida Kahlo’s diary, orated by Maya. Though the twins don’t identify as religious and aren’t initiated into the faith, Santería’s ideas of ancestry, humanity, and self-identity clearly steers Ibeyi’s songwriting, concerned equally with past, present, and future. The songs are laced with allegory to the orishas, and their new album closes with the same prayer to the god Elegua that the first record opened with. [. . .]

For full article, see http://www.thefader.com/2017/05/04/ibeyi-cover-story-interview-cuba-photos  (accessed via http://remezcla.com/lists/music/ibeyi-fader-interview-follow-up-album/)