after all, women were not seafarers – and so she is endowed with all that men both admire, desire and fear, so there is a lot to learn from her many aspects. She is beautiful, powerful, mysterious, dangerous, and loving. My search may have started in Italy but I must say that the music from Brazil, Portugal and Cape Verde was even more haunting and compelling to me.
Songs From The Sea is a compilation of songs about mermaids; songs sung from a mermaid's point of view; songs that conjure up the feeling of the sea, longing and desire.
Mermaids have long fascinated and inspired men and women around the world. Though her most familiar incarnation in the West is that found in Hans Christian Anderson's
16. Cesaria Evora – E Doce Morrer No Mar
17. Dorival Caymmi – E Doce Morrer No Mar
fairy tale, she takes other forms in other cultures: Yemaya/Yemanja/Yemoja in cultures from the African diaspora, Janaina to some Indians of the Amazon, and Lasiren in Haiti. Songs From The Sea is a collection of praise-songs to water deities and secular songs about sereias, or mermaids. Though frequently depicted in the West as a temptress or a femme fatale, the mermaid is also a powerful symbol the divine mother who presides over the sea.
