Track Listing

1. Quando Dás Um Pouco Mais [When You Give a Little More]
2. Sumanai
3. Ponto de Luz [Touch of Light]
4. Caminhanti [Wayfarer]
5. Pénastrada [From On the Road]
6. Di Almo [of the Soul]
7. Bué (Você É...) [Bué (Yuo Are...)]
8. Kede Livre [Free-Fall]
9. Só d'Imagina [Just Imagining]
10. Minino [Child]
11. Voz di Vento [Voice of the Wind]
12. Exala [Exhale]
13. Fundi Ku Mi [Be One with Me]
14. Manso Manso
15. Mana Fé

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9585 in Music
• Released on: 2009-08-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
The music of Sara Tavares can be best described as "sunshine soul" and "XNITI" is suffused with it. Brimming with Cape Verdean guitar licks, Angolese rhythms and warm Portuguese vocals, Sara never sounded more intense. This is a startling collection, packed with surprises that displays how progressively richer and more expansive Sara Tavares' vocal repetoire has become since her previous album "Balance". Her songs are lyrcial, sensual and more textured. They are intimate but also wrapped in irresistibly funky rhythms drawn from the Cape Verdean / African / Brazilian / Caribbean diaspora. Themes of love - spiritual and human - embrace philosophical reflections that describe, says Tavares, "the soul taking flight." "XINTI" she says is "like an inner prayer from someone taking a deep breath and moving on."

Customer Reviews

Different, warm, emotional. A 'must' listen to.
This is the follow-up to her acclaimed album "Balancê".
Sara Tavares grew up in Lisbon, where her parents had emigrated to earn a living. As a teenager she founded the first Portuguese Gospel choir, making Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin her exemplars. She gravitated to pop, then found herself at home in the expat Cape Verdean music scene: this record reflects her return to her roots.
But this record is different. Sara Tavares sings in a kittenish, almost conspiratorial manner: hers is not an art which demands that the listener attends closely to every note, but it is a pleasure to spend time with her.
Part of the seduction lies in the expert way the accompaniment is laid down, with guitars, a flute and a vibraphone creating a soft halo of ambient sound.
Unlike her singer compatriots, she doesn't feel any need to genuflect to the genius of Cesaria Evora, the singer who first drew attention to the music of these rocky islands.
Sara writes amazing songs, which burst with warmth, evoking her island roots and nature ("Voz di vento" is a lovely example), delivering them with one of the most shape-shifting voices around, a fusion of the gentle and wistful with subtly buoyant rhythm.
Sung in Portuguese, Cape Verdean creole and street slang, "Xinti" which means 'feel', tells its own story with bewitching songs like 'Sumanai' about music as the heart's voice quenching the thirst, moving to "Touch of Light" to "Wayfarer" to "Free Fall" all of it "Of the Soul".
The whole effect is poetically magical and while there are various male musicians involved Tavares plays all the guitars and the producer and engineer are both women.
Like the best of modern ex-pat Cape Verde, the overall sound is pan-Portuguese, drawing on Africa, Lisbon and the rest of the world, but rooted firmly in Cape Verde. There are no traditional 'mornas' here, but each song is suffused with that uniquely Lusitanian spirit of reflective 'saudade'/sweet sadness.
"Adding an understated RnB intonation to the wistful traditional lilt, Sara Tavares can sound almost too sweetly tasteful at times. Yet there's enough real emotion on this well-crafted second album to carry it beyond mere easy listening". - Mark Hudson
Play it again and again.
The Very Best of Cesaria Evora
Balancê
M'Bem di Fora
Eclipse
Vagarosa

Like a refreshing, cool breeze...
Although Balance is still my favorite, I was particularly moved by the "soulfoulness" of Ms. Tavares singing in this project. In an era of over hyped, computer assisted entertainers masquerading as artists, it is refreshing to hear a singer that can still speak directly to my soul... particularly in a language in which I am far from fluent.

Speaks to Soul -- Universal Language
Beautiful! I love both "Xinti" and "Balance"! Sara's music washes over me and wraps me in warmth, peace, love and deep, deep appreciation of soul's universality. Although I do not speak Portugese I understand the feelings and emotion of Sara's music. Sara said during an interview her songs are "prayers and lullabies". I don't feel shortchanged by lack of language; hers is the language of the soul. I am so greatful that in the midst of my busy, hectic and sometimes stress filled days I can listen, engage soul and find peace. Sara's music makes me smile, dance and feel joy! Sara is the voice of a wise and joyful artist. It's amazing she has so much ahead of her and she will be wonderful to watch. Her music smiles and gives warm embraces. Thank you Sara Tavares!