She’s a Chilean-American from Los Angeles who sings in English and Spanish, but Gaby Hernandez’s electro-acoustic creations are heavily informed by the weirdest and most wonderful areas of Brazilian music, from bossa nova to funk carioca. Lo Mas Dulce is a futuristic update of Tropicália, where a clattering berimbau groove is overlaid with space-age synths. Entranced is a galloping bossa waltz where the entire song is sung on a single note, like Jobim’s One Note Samba, while My Baobab Tree is a gorgeous choro ballad sweetened with woozy guitars. Fellow Angeleno Kamasi Washington provides tightly harmonised saxophone arrangements on three tracks but, throughout, the emphasis is on strong, bel canto vocal melodies, dreamy chord changes and seductive rhythms. Impressively, Hernandez and her collaborators (including oddball producer Dexter Story) manage to groove hard despite using the most minimal, low-volume percussion, all brushed snares, tinkling cowbells and artfully fluttering hi-hats.
