After the release of her eponymous album, a mix of bossa, RnB, samba and electronica, smokey-voiced Brazilian singer-songwriter Céu has become a household name in and out of her homeland. This is thanks, in no small part, to the exposure given to her via Six Degrees Records and via Starbucks (she was the first international artist featured by the chain). Céu returns this week with her third album, Caravana Sereia Bloom, an LP inspired by voyages and travelling troupes.

Musically, Caravana Sereia Bloom shows the singer’s evolution, crafting a more complex and mature sound. Though it sometimes slips into coffee table territory, the album holds together with some stand-out moments, mixing Brazil’s musical heritage (tropicalia, samba, bossa) with her own song writing talents, for example on ‘Retrovisor,’ ‘Teju na Estrada,’ ‘Asfalto e Sal,’ and ‘Contravento.’

It is a dusty, road-trip affair, influenced by the singer’s travels between São Paulo and the arid North East, and paying tribute to Carlos Diegues 1979 film Bye Bye Brasil about a troop of travelling artists. This is the perfect album for a sunshine filled road trip or to close your eyes to and wish you were there.

It may be a long way from Paraguay’s sprawling garbage dumps to the stately concert halls of Europe, but for one group of talented youths the distance isn’t so vast – after all, if music comes from the heart then it really doesn’t matter if the instruments are made of trash.

The immensely talented ‘Orchestra of Recycled Instruments’ seems to have perfected symphonies of several classical composers, while at the same time perfecting the art of reuse. Thanks to an innovative program, called Sonidos de la Tierra (www.sonidosdelatierra.org.py), needy kids across the country are learning to change their lives through music and recycling.

Sonidos de la Tierra (translated as ‘Sounds of the Earth’) was first organized in 2002 as a way of educating young people from poor and underdeveloped regions of Paraguay through the shared experience of creating music .

Since then, the program has grown to reach over 3,000 children from 72 of the nation’s poorest communities — bringing with it the unique joy and personal satisfaction that comes with working to master a musical instrument.

With the help of more than 100 international sponsors, Sonidos de la Tierra has been able to put otherwise out of reach classical instruments into the hands of needy Paraguayan youths — but perhaps the program’s greatest contribution comes in special workshops that teach them how to make those instruments themselves, out of recycled materials.

So far, the Orchestra of Recycled Instruments may be the most widely known group of musicians to arise from Sonidos de la Tierra, having played over 80 concerts both in Paraguay and abroad.

On Brazilian Beat, Putumayo goes indie with a new album that uncovers the roots-influenced contemporary Brazilian music scene. Glittering breakbeats are at home with bouncing berimbaus while rolling Afro-Brazilian rhythms, retro samba soul and velvety bossa nova vocals mesh and groove organically. This is the unstoppable Brazilian Beat. Selected from tens of thousands of songs collected by the pioneering label created to introduce new global music to broad audiences, Brazilian Beat chronicles the vibrant indie scene in Brazil and around the world. Musicians are taking samba, bossa nova, and MPB (Brazilian popular music) and deftly incorporating electronica, soul, funk, and just about every other music imaginable. Sultry or upbeat, the tracks on this compilation of hip, rootsy artists aim to raise listeners moods and introduce even die-hard fans to a new crop of Brazilian music innovators. Featured alongside unsung icons such as samba soul master Marcos Valle are rising new stars like Tita Lima, daughter of the bassist from psychedelic hipster darlings, Os Mutantes.

Lágrimas Mexicana is a completely unique collection of songs that draws heavily from traditional Latin and Brazilian rhythms, and weds them to 21st century jazz improvisation and sonic effects in a luxuriant braid of colours, textures, styles, and languages. Having known one another for 25 years, Brazilian guitarist, songwriter, and percussionist Vinicius Cantuaria and American guitarist Bill Frisell have occasionally played on one another’s albums. They have long sought the opportunity to collaborate on an album-length project. After Cantuaria moved to Brooklyn from Brazil, it presented itself. Arriving in New York, Cantuaria was deeply taken with the sheer diversity of the Spanish-speaking people and sounds he encountered on the streets, from Cubans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, and Mexicans; they drew him in, and his songwriter’s instincts began to address what he’d heard. Here he plays acoustic guitar, percussion, and sings in his beautiful airy baritone. Frisell, who understood and orchestrated Cantuaria’s vision, plays electric guitar and employs loops and effects that meld provocatively yet seamlessly with these songs. The various languages – Spanish, Portuguese, and English – concern themselves with the various manifestations of love, from spiritual to carnal to platonic.

Brazilian rhythms rein over the spice of title track “Lágrimas Mexicanas” but it’s the vocals and heady guitar lines that make this track a stunner. Afro-Colombian rhythms meet samba in the lilting ballad “Lágrimas de Amor,” where Frisell’s guitar loops itself to create a counter rhythm and elongate the elegant textural elements at work in the structure. The lyric is tender, the melody is heartbreakingly beautiful. “El Camino” is another gem with bright guitar lines that somehow evoke an open road sound. Equally good is “Aquela Mulher” which brings together a nuevo cancion melody with Afro-Brazilian rhythms. “Calle 7,” inspired by a walk down Seventh Avenue, manages to be both meditative and to capture the urgent street life.

Lágrimas Mexicanas presents two different yet very complementary artists in a collaboration that borders on brilliant. Fresh, innovative and downright delightful, Lágrimas Mexicanas is excellent listening.

Federico Aubele returns to a smoky realm of acoustic guitar licks, heavy rhythms and sinister dub atmospherics for his fourth studio album, Berlin 13. The record pulls from the personal transformation Aubele experienced in his time living in Berlin and the vibe of a city strongly associated with electronic music.

Berlin 13 features collaborations with Natalia Clavier, Ka, Mauro Refosco and Jesse Harris. To set the tone for this album, Aubele revisited his deepest musical influences, focusing on those he believed essential in his formation as an artist. From the backing beats to the musique-concrete samples, and the nylon string guitar layered with his baritone voice, the result is a blending of the elements in his unique style.

Over the last decade, Latin American protest songs have undergone a revolution (changed dramatically), going from poetic ode to explicit, raw rap and hip-hop, tackling social ills and injustice.

The first protest songs sung in Central and South America were corridos, ballads that were sung during the revolution that started in Mexico in 1910. The protest songs of the 1960s and 70s were modern variations on the corrido: earnest, passionate, poetic ballads. They were known as La Nueva Canción, or The New Song.

Indictment

La Nueve Canción of the 1960s was the lifework of the young Argentine singer and writer Víctor Heredia: “In the beginning, this movement was a sort of rediscovery of the written word. Beauty and aesthetic principles were the central, and essential, foundations that a song was based on. That was new. Until then, people sang about other things, not about the human condition and society.”

Uruguay’s Daniel Viglietti also dedicated himself to the new genre. His song A desalambrar or Tear Down the Fences was an indictment of the methods and practices of the major landowners. The song addresses the gulf between a piece of land and people. Daniel Viglietti: “The songs were written because of the huge need to address the injustices and oppression in Latin America.”

Victor Jara

After the Cuban revolution which started in 1959, La Nueve Canción gained popularity in Chile. After the democratically-elected government of President Salvador Allende was deposed by a military coup headed by General Augusto Pinochet in 1973, the new dictatorship attempted to silence the protest singers.

One of the most important victims of the Pinochet regime was Víctor Jara. Shortly after the coup he was arrested, tortured and murdered in Santiago’s national stadium. The sports centre has now been renamed Víctor Jara Stadium. Jara became an international symbol and the embodiment of the struggle for human rights and justice throughout Latin America.

The cruel and oppressive Latin American dictatorships forced many protest singers into exile, including Argentina’s Mercedes Sosa. She became famous throughout the world for her songs that coupled poetry and social criticism. Her fellow countrymen Facundo Cabral was another major artist in exile. He was murdered earlier this month in Guatemala.

Revolutionary songs

The main singers of social protest songs in Cuba in the 1960s and 70s, were Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola. They wrote and sang two types of songs, one praised the Cuban communist revolution while the other criticised Latin American dictatorships, the war in Vietnam and the killing fields in Cambodia. They protested against events outside Cuba, never against their own government.

Socially critical songs

In later years, a new generation of singers emerged in Latin America that, in contrast to the previous generation, was more critical of society and social mores. One of the most important interpreters of the new genre was Carlos Varela, known as the ‘Cuban Bob Dylan’.

He likes telling stories. The song Como los peches is an indictment of the rigid, uncompromising nature of Cuba’s revolutionary counsel and describes the widespread disillusionment among the island’s youth. In an interview with RNW, Carlos Varela said: “I don’t want to give an exact, photographically accurate image of what’s happening in Cuba, I want to think about what’s happening and about our reality.”

His comments raised a storm of criticism in Cuba and he is now heavily censored by the Cuban media.

Rap and hip-hop

Over the last ten years, rappers and hip-hop artists have become the major proponents of socially critical music. Many of the young rappers draw on their own experience of growing up in the poor slums surrounding many of Latin America’s major cities. They use the genre to criticise society and the ruling elites and their songs frequently get them into trouble.

The Dominican Republic has banned some songs by Puerto Rico’s Calle 13. Just as in the past, government censorship continues to try and smother the voices of protest singers.

An old saying in Spanish states that ‘segundas partes nunca fueron buenas’ (second parts are never good) and you could be forgiven for thinking that the recent collaboration between Cuban pianist Chucho Valdés and flamenco singer Concha Buika is nothing but a copycat of the 2003 similar musical partnership between Bebo Valdés, Chucho’s father, and Diego ‘El Cigala’, another flamenco stalwart. However, this conclusion would be misleading because ‘El Último Trago’ is an excellent album in its own right that celebrates the nonagenarian Costa Rican-born Mexican singer Chavela Vargas’s oeuvre.

The record’s twelve songs feature Buika’s powerful, heartfelt voice against the backdrop of Chucho’s solid and melodious piano. Concha is what they call in flamenco a ‘cantante larga’ (long singer), which means she can tackle any genre and still remain unique and poignant in her delivery. This is obvious in songs such as the album’s opener ‘Soledad’, the renowned ‘Cruz de Olvido’ and the title track ‘En el Último Trago’, a classic from Chavela’s repertoire. Chucho’s contribution, on the other hand, sometimes remains in the background and sometimes takes centre stage in pieces such as ‘Las Ciudades’ and ‘Se Me Hizo Fácil’. The result of this combination is a mesmerising album, which will delight jazz and flamenco enthusiasts alike.

The story about how this Mali-Cuba concept album finally came to light – 14 years after the original idea – has been much documented since its release last autumn.

The failed attempt to gather together Malian musicians with their Cuban compatriots in 1996 resulted in the musical gem – and world music’s biggest success story – Buena Vista Social Club.

AfroCubism, thanks to label boss Nick Gold’s perseverance and unstinting belief in the idea, the album was finally recorded in Madrid in 2009.

Since then, the collective of stellar musicians from Mali – Toumani Diabaté, Bassekou Kouyaté, Djelimady Tounkara, Lassana Diabaté and Kasse

Mady Diabaté, plus their Cuban counterparts Eliades Ochoa and Grupo Patria – have been delighting audiences around the world with a joyous set of Caribbean and West African songs.

The mutual respect between these masterful musicians is palpable on stage and their individual virtuosity comes through with solo moments from the key members of the group.

The Cuban singer-guitarist Ochoa, the undisputed leader of the group, stands centre-stage and keeps in check the mischievous, musical sparring between Toumani on his kora and the ngoni-wielding Bassekou.

If cross-cultural collaboration sounds like some music marketing concept, then rest assured, this album is far more classy and organic than many other hybrids.

The best description comes from Ochoa: ‘AfroCubism is more than a fusion… it’s the merging of two such strong powers. It’s the musical big bang.’

The Buenos Aires music scene seems to be full of exciting new acts that are renewing tango, taking it into new directions. Narcotango is one of the participants in this explosion of talent known as neotango. The band’s latest album, Limanueva, presents some of the best bandoneon work you’ll hear this year. The superb solos take the bandoneon in multiple directions, including traditional, electronica, blues, and jazz.

Narcotango is part of tango electronico movement that emerged around 7 or 8 years ago in the Argentine capital. This movement included Bajofondo Tango Club, Tanghetto, Ultratango, Otros Aires and San Telmo Lounge. Despite the electronic tag, Narcotango is characterized by the acoustic sound of the bandoneon, drum kit, electric guitar and keyboards. The electronics enhance the overall sound and make it more edgy.

The band’s musical director is an excellent bandoneon player named Carlos Libedinsky, who also contributes electronic programming, samplers and effects. The rest of the band includes a powerful rock band-style rhythm section and keyboards: Fernando del Castillo on drums, percussion, electronic programming, samplers and effects; Marcelo Toth on guitar, bass, electronic programming, samplers and effects; and Mariano Castro on piano, keyboards, bass electronic programming, samplers and effects.

Narcotango released its first recording in 2003, self titled Narcotango. The second album, Narcotango 2, came out in 2006 and Narcotango Live (DVD + CD) was produced in 2008. This recording was nominated to both Latin Grammy 2009 (best tango album) and Carlos Gardel 2009 awards (best electronic album), after a series of performances that included 16 international tours playing in the main cities of Europe, the Americas and Argentina.

Limanueva is a superb album that reveals the versatility of the bandoneon in a context of well crafted tango innovation.

The original version of Tanto Tempo is now a fully-fledged international bestseller, making it one of the most globally successful albums of Brazilian music ever.

As is increasingly becoming the norm, the original opus has been repackaged as a Special Edition featuring a bonus disc of alternative reworkings. The assortment of remixers plying their post-production skills including Derrick Carter, 4hero, Rae & Christian, Layo & Bushwacka and King Britt. The net result is still a fluent collection of blissed-out Balearic sunset moments and lounge beats for the ever expanding bar culture.

In the former catalogue comes Peter Kruders’ languid shuffling title track, and 4hero’s soul-drenched reading of the 60s bossa nova flavoured ‘Samba da Benção.’ While Rae & Christian add a rolling Soul II Soul-inspired loop to Bebel’s rendition of Gilberto Gil’s ‘Bananeira’ featuring the legendary João Donato on keyboards.

The tempo rises on ‘Close Your Eyes’ as Gallic funksters Buffalo Bunch add the prerequisite spice to create a delicious Samba party. Faze Action deliver an equally palatable percussive mix too.

‘So Nice,’ a former Cool Cuts chart topper, appears in a trio of versions each uniquely different and far from just fillers. Layo & Bushwacka go deep-house, DJ Marky pins his interpretation to a drum ‘n’ bass backdrop, and Derrick Carter applies his trademarked tripped-out beats.

If you’re not already familiar with the original album, now’s the chance to see what all the fuss is about. You never know, you too might fall in love with this beautiful marriage of bossa nova rhythms and soulfully delivered lyrics.