The video for Ibeyi's song 'River' is, frankly, more than a little unsettling. Twin sisters take turns staring flatly into the camera, singing expressionlessly, in between being repeatedly submerged underwater.
This emerging duo, whose name is pronounced 'ee-bey-ee', is comprised of the 19-year-old, French-Cuban twin sisters Naomi and Lisa-Kainde Díaz. They're the daughters of the groundbreaking Cuban percussionist Miguel "Anga" Diaz, and they root their sound in the Yoruba traditions they inherited from their father. (Their band name actually means "twins" in Yoruba — and twins are both astoundingly common in West Africa and especially prized in Yoruba culture.)
'River''s bed is a deep percussion groove — Naomi plays the wooden-box cajón and the double-headed, hourglass-shaped batá — but the duo's voices float sweetly above the drums, edged with the faintest hint of metallic overtones.
Though they're based in France, the Díaz sisters sing 'River' mostly in English, before raising their voices up in the Yoruba language in a paean to Oshun, the Yoruba river orisha spirit and the patron deity of Cuba in the Afro-Caribbean Yoruba tradition.
Ibeyi is brand-new to the scene. They are signed to the record label XL, the home of Vampire Weekend and Adele, and have a debut album, self-titled ‘Ibeyi’.