This is a thrilling hour in the company of two artists who perform as if this music is flowing through their veins as well as their heritage.

‘Alma’ shines a spotlight on 20th-century repertoire mostly from Latin America, alongside a smaller selection from Spain and Portugal. Although, as the liner notes tell us, some of these tunes were popular in their own time and taken up by prominent singers of the day, they are now little-heard. This disc is an excellent step towards changing that.

For me, an ideal song release feels like an ‘album’ – a curated programme with some unifying aspect – rather than a survey-style recording or ‘complete works’. (Obviously, there is room for both: just my preference.) At first glance, this is not necessarily what ‘Alma’ is going for. Its track listing doubles as a showcase of 17 composers across 7 countries, with all the stylistic variation that implies. Thematically, too, we range widely, across love, loss, passion, violence, the natural (and unnatural) world. 

But I believe there are two key elements to ‘Alma’ that embrace this diversity and result in its forming a coherent whole. There is the vivid storytelling and descriptive power in the poetry set by these composers that evokes an almost magic-realist aura, so strongly associated with Latin American literature of around the same timeframe – and with music to match. Drama and exoticism leap off the booklet pages, let alone out of the speakers. Take for instance the glorious ‘Promesas para que duermas’, from the Colombian composer Figueroa – as Rolong sings meltingly of stars and sea, listen to Araújo’s piano scatter the rays of light before rounding out into the expanse of the ocean.

On the subject of water, Spanish composer Marìa de Pablos Cerezo’s ‘La noria’ is surely one of the finest evocations of seeing and thinking in art song. All audible: the grinding mechanics of a water wheel, the stream flowing through it, its progress lulling an old mule to sleep. And just as the poem circles back on itself, praising itself for blending the melancholy with the magical, so does the music, dovetailing callbacks to earlier moments, Araújo moving seamlessly between the song’s multiple moods. The duo build to the song’s metaphysical climax, Rolong reaching a kind of wondering euphoria as the now ‘divine’ poet unites ‘shadows and science’. It’s a breathtaking rendition: required listening.

The second element is the unmistakeable lilt, or pulse, to these songs, the rhythms of these countries and their languages animating these settings – somewhere in there, even in extremes (high or low) of pace or volume. The pair of Argentinian songs that open the disc show succinctly how this can vary. Gustavino’s ‘Milonga de dos hermanos’ has the piano propelling the tragic tale to its violent conclusion, while Gilardi’s beautiful lullaby ‘Cançion de cuna india’ pares down the accompaniment at times to almost a suggestion, while the ‘sway’ transfers to Rolong’s gliding vocal. One reason the album is so exciting overall is the tension between the tumult of emotion being expressed and the relative restraint of the arrangements.

Other highlights for me also include Braga’s ‘Afro-Brazilian’ songs, in particular the ritualistic ‘Ó Kinimbá’, where both the vocal and piano melody float around a spectral near-drone until Rolong lowers her voice in closing prayer. The album also includes two settings by Lorca (yes, that one) of Spanish folk songs. The first, ‘Las morillas de Jaén’, sets a mysterious tale to a patient, recurring figure, lingering in a corner of your mind even as the album continues. Both the songs I’ve mentioned here, through this kind of stately repetition, create a haunting aura I find myself continually drawn to. They feel like slight outliers in the set, enriching the experience even further.

The duo seem to embody this contrast. Rolong’s operatic verve makes each song a production in miniature, while Araújo – a collaborative pianist through and through – brings a more reserved delicacy, giving Rolong maximum freedom of manoeuvre while keeping the overall rapport in perfect balance. At times the intensity is volcanic, but simmering, yet to erupt.

As a devotee of the releases the SOMM label has put together with Rebeca Omordia to showcase African classical music, I had high expectations for how they would present this album – and I wasn’t disappointed.

It sounds incredible (production credit: James Cardell-Oliver) – there is so much audible ‘space’ that even when the duo are at their most intense, and Rolong in particular threatens to smoulder the needle into the red, the results are pleasurably hair-raising, rather than ear-splitting. Robert Matthew-Walker’s excellent booklet notes include brief biographies of all the composers and why these songs should represent them: as a result, I’ve neither needed nor tried to replicate that information here.

Warmly – hotly, even – recommended.

AA

‘Alma: Ibero-American Songs’ is released on 18 July 2025.