Paris twin sisters rock in Russia for the first time.
In Yoruba language, "ibeyi" is the word for twins and that sixth sense that allows twins to synchronize in their thoughts, feelings, and actions. Although they are only distantly related to Yoruba people (the twins Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz were born in Paris to Cuban percussionist Miguel Díaz, who played with Buena Vista Social Club, and a singer of Franco-Venezuelan descent), they grew up with Yoruba songs they heard from their mother. Yoruba intonations, which might sound unfamiliar to a European ear, and "the calling of the blood" have had a great influence on the twins’ musical career.
However, African tradition is only one element of Ibeyi's music, which brings together the roots and the digital, the ancient and the new, the national and the global. Their two albums, produced by the owner of XL Recordings Richard Russell, feature a slow hip-hop beat, Latin American percussion, Spanish rap, a bebop saxophone, quotes from Frida Kahlo’s diary, and a fragment of a feminist speech by Michelle Obama. But whatever subject they turn two, the twenty-three-year-old duo seem to dedicate every song to the same idea: all racial and gender borders are artificial, and in fact we can all synchronize in our thoughts and feelings, just like twins.