Simentera

Über Simentera

Simentera, founded in Praia in 1992 and led by Mário Lúcio Sousa, was the great acoustic-revival ensemble of Cape Verdean music. Rejecting the synthesizers that dominated 1990s pop, they returned to guitars, cavaquinho, violin, and hand percussion to reinterpret morna, coladeira, batuku, and funaná. Their carefully arranged records restored dignity to the roots repertoire and influenced a generation of contemporary Cape Verdean musicians.