Helena Recalde‘s lead single from her forthcoming album A la Costa is a tribute to Esmeraldas: the green province on Ecuador’s Pacific coast, a territory where the Andes foothills flatten into ocean lowlands. Historically one of the most significant centres of Afro-Ecuadorian culture on the continent, the region defines the track’s rhythmic identity. Recalde wrote it as a love letter to the place that raised her, constructing the sound alongside Malian ngoni virtuoso Abou Diarra, musical director Julien Lourau, and the collective she calls the Curanderes.

Diarra brings the kamele ngoni, an instrument he has modified with extra strings to push beyond its classical scale, capable of functioning as melodic lead, drum, bass, or guitar within a single performance. He comes from the Sikasso region of southern Mali, home of Wassoulou music. Here he takes the vocal alongside Recalde, the two trading lines over a groove rooted in the Afro-Pacific rhythmic traditions of Esmeraldas, with Lourau and the Curanderes keeping the arrangement tight around them.

Born in Quito and based in France, Recalde spent her teenage years in Cuenca, a city known for its poets, musicians and artists, before moving to Paris where she studied Afro-Cuban music and earned a diploma in jazz bass. Her 2022 album Karishina drew on Andean melody, jazz improvisation, and Latin rhythms across a ten-track suite. A la Costa marks a turn toward the coast, literally and musically.

Listen to “Esmeralda” HERE and pre-order your copy of A la Costa following THIS LINK