Nadie Es Nadie artwork

Imagine yourself in the small hours of a Lisbon night, tired and emotional, stumbling on cobblestones and with no clear destination. Cheesy tourist fado bars line the narrow lanes, interspersed with ape-guarded doorways thumping out eurodance basslines. Maria's is the plaintive, defiant voice you hear floating down from a side-alley, borne along a hot wind, impossible to locate. Luckily, we've got the album here, so no-one has to break their ankles on slippy Portuguese streets. Maria gave her first live performance in Brazil in 2003, has been writing and performing since then, developing the live act and completing the difficult task of conveying the energy and drama of the live set onto a studio album. If her voice brings to mind the fado ballads of Lisbon, or Parisian grands chansons; her songwriting is more reminiscent of the South American locations that inspired them. The extremes of wealth and poverty; of climate and geography; of the isolated rural and the hyper-urban that typify Latin America take their toll on the artistic observer, pushing the emotional range to extremes. It makes for good inspiration - Mil i Maria pack it into the album and the live show.

Broadly describable as a folk band, Mil i Maria are a three-piece consisting of Maria del Rocio Herrera Alonso (Vocals, Guitar), Rafael de la Torre Coca (Guitar) and Rawle Bruce (Bass Guitar). Their first album is entitled Nadie es Nadie, featuring the considerable vocal talent of Maria, whose remarkable voice recalls both Edith Piaf and Amália Rodrigues. The album is a curious mix of influences, drawing on fado, flamenco, folk and the French tradition of 'grand chanson' for inspiration. Above all, it is a deeply emotional, personal record and reflects in Portuguese, Spanish and English the cosmopolitan, bohemian personality of its singer/songwriter.

Usually we'd come up with a paragraph here, jammed with adjectives and superlatives, trying to describe the whole album in a hundred words. We don't want to do that this time, wouldn't even know how. We're so flipped out by this record, so stuck for suitable words, that the only reasonable option is that we describe it track by track. Here goes:

Eu Quero

A mini-epic, Maria sings us through a checklist of her wishes and needs. As in life, these are not always logical: 'I want to be behind, and always in front/I want to conquer, and always lose' (trans.).

Pantera

If anyone was wondering whether Maria actually breathes or not, the answer is evident some two minutes into Pantera when she draws a sharp lungful to fuel the chilling howl of rage and horror that is the song's crescendo. A paean to the frustration of being expected to conform to others' norms, Pantera becomes chilling in its final stanza - warning the listener not to sleep too deeply as: 'I am on the hunt' (trans). One of the more haunting tracks on the album.

Vivo en Penumbra

The quintessential album track: long, cinematic, affecting. A narrator's journey out of the restrictive psychological haven of the home (where she has to walk sideways to avoid the mirror spying on her) and out into the agoraphobic's hell that is the city. An encounter with a flamenco guitarist brings a momentary respite from panic and paranoia, but it is short-lived. The song ends where it began, back in the house, afraid to leave. No sugary endings here.

Y Si...

Recorded at the Rocasol secret venue, the campfire acoustic feel of this track complements the raw emotion of Maria's voice as she sings us through the self-negating series of demands the narrator's lover asks of her. Poignant, because in the final line she acquiesces.

Trabajo Temporal

Trabajo Temporal is an example of Mil i Maria's lighter side, the story of anyone stuck in a short-term, dead-end job, dreaming about the moment when they finally tell the boss where he can shove it. A jaunty melody, Caribbean rhythm.

Na Varanda

Another touch of lightness to rescue the listener. Na Varanda is a stream of consciousness narrative, laden with word-play, describing the thoughts of a character who wishes to be somewhere else, with someone else, and who just can't figure out what to do in the interim. Also notable for Maria's ability to stretch out the vocal line to the point where most would be gasping for breath and for its West-African-style rhythm guitar and bouncing bassline.

Verto

As simple a song as it is moving. Truly makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The story of a blind poet the writer met in Cuba, who walked hesitantly but who flew on wings that were 'the eternal universe of his verses'. A triumph of vocal ability over hype and technology, Verto features the lyrics of celebrated Santiago de Cuba poet Saskia Sanchez de Agüero.

NYC

Christmas in New York gets the Mil i Maria treatment. Maria's first song in English is a disarming series of observations, ending with a pertinent question. Is there room in the metropolis for a human moment, for a respite from the chaos and commercialism, or is it too late to care about a ray of sunlight breaking through?

Meu Amour

A love song for one who is dying. One who fights but loses, who wants more but will not achieve it. Draws deeply from Fado in its vocal style: fey, deathly, interrupted by angelic moments.

Boas Entençöes

Inspired by New Year's resolutions, Boas Entençöes is a treatment of how hard it can be to live up to one's expectations of oneself. The promises we make, how superhuman we expect ourselves to be and how unhappy we become when we inevitably fail. Relax, nobody's perfect. Once again, recorded live in the studio garden, with the same campfire feel.

São Paulo

Maria's voice is sweet and playful at times, poignant and pensive at others. Not on this track. If there were hints of anger on the album so far, they reach their crescendo here. In the city of São Paulo, kiosks sell lines of glue for streetkids to obliterate themselves with. The queues are long and the kids are wasted. Maria packs her reaction into this short song: a howl, a scream and a call to arms. Interestingly, Rawle's bouncing bassline makes it all the more effective, somehow including and implicating the listener in the scene. A powerful song, far from the hand-wringing, preaching pathos or voyeurism of the 'one more day for us in paradise' reaction to street poverty. The album's title: 'Nadie es Nadie' comes from this song - at the point where a streetkid reacts to being called a nobody: 'Nadie es nadie' (no-one is no-one).

Ta Na Rua

A whimsical and upbeat celebration of how time passes by, whether we spend it watching tv, watching people, or just waiting for the bus. Always a favourite at the live shows because of its singalong chorus, it's the antithesis of Boas Entençöes- the message being to just go with the flow.

I'm Going

A return to the sense of fun that seasons the album. Another favourite from the live set. Drawing inspiration from Maria's love affair with Carrol's Alice in Wonderland, the song is a light-hearted treatment of the adventures ahead of any girl on her way into the world. Fresh, whimsical and a little absurd. An extended conclusion to the song segues into the final track of the album.

Balada del que se foi

A travelogue following the footsteps of 'just another hippy walking here and there in Brazil' (trans.). A laid-back track to ease us out of the album, its final assertion that we are all in our own way, wandering aimlessly, but that aimlessness can be a virtue in itself. Thanks for listening this far.