Season highlights: World music
For her 18th birthday, Cristina Branco received an album by fado singer Amalia Rodrigues from her grandfather. Up until that point, Branco preferred jazz, blues, and bossa nova, not fado, the distinct, mournful music of her native Portugal. Discovering this music changed not only her musical tastes but her aspirations to be a journalist. Today, Branco is one of the world's best-known fado singers, and though only 32, she is hailed as a worthy successor to Rodrigues. Her fifth album, "Corpo Iluminado," which means "lighted body," introduced Branco to a wider audience in 2001, and her latest CD, "Sensus," daringly explores themes of eroticism and sexuality. She will be making her Boston debut. Oct. 2, Berklee Performance Center, 8 p.m.
North American world music fans were likely first introduced to Eva Ayllon when her song "Azucar de Cana" appeared on the David Byrne-produced compilation "The Soul of Black Peru." Ayllon is considered the "Queen of Afro-Peruvian Lando," and her eclectic style encompasses African and Spanish music. Born Maria Angelica Ayllon Urbina, she has been making music since the late 1970s and excels at the various rhythms of black Peru, including lando, festejo, and alcatraz. Oct. 16, Berklee Performance Center, 8 p.m.
London-born Jane Birkin began as an actress, appearing in the Michelangelo Antonioni classic "Blow Up." But it was her provocative 1969 duet with Serge Gainsbourg, "Je T'Aime . . . Moi Non Plus," that established Birkin as a singer. Birkin will make her Boston debut performing songs in tribute to Gainsbourg, her longtime collaborator and lover, who died in 1991. She'll be accompanied by violinist Djamel Benyelles, as well as a quartet of French and Maghrebian musicians. Nov. 13, Berklee Performance Center, 8 p.m.
A sonic marvel, throat singing cannot be described, it simply must be heard. And Huun Huur Tu, from the independent republic of Tuva, are among the most renowned in this ancient vocal style. Huun Huur Tu specializes in a technique called khoomei, in which one vocalist sings several notes simultaneously, producing both a low, rumbling drone and a high whistle. With traditional instruments such as the banjo-like doshpulur and the igli, a vertical fiddle, this quartet's songs range from lullabies and hymns to healing rituals and hunters' calls. Nov. 21, Somerville Theatre, 7 p.m.
