Reared in Havanna, spending their formative years in Paris and currently en route to Australia, the twin sisters that make up Ibeyi, Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz, have built on their already impressive musical pedigree to create a unique sound that’s both ancient and very contemporary.

We Skype the twins from their flat in Paris, the hum of a washing machine lurching in the background as they prepare to depart for Australia. While they’re new to the country, the sisters are well-versed in the unique appeal that events like WOMADelaide offer.

“We are so excited, it’s going to be our first time in Australia,” Lisa tells ripitup.com.au. “We did WOMAD in England, it was amazing, we loved it was really, really nice. It’s a special festival , I think, it’s world music, there are more different types of music so you can really hear people that you won’t hear in a ‘normal’ festival,” she says. “Which is really interesting.”

With Lisa-Kaindé on piano and Naomi on a range of percussion, Ibeyi effortlessly blends the pair’s twin harmonies with a sound that borrows from their heritage and a love of modern, electronic sounds. It’s evident on tracks like River, which at first bears a passing resemblance to tracks like Lorde‘s Royals before digging much deeper.

Lyrically, the pair frequently sing in Yoruba, the West African language brought to the Americas by generations of slaves. It’s the language of their ancestors, and as the pair explain is able to transcend verbal barriers.

“No one is really fluent in Yoruba, in our Yoruba,” Lisa says. “The Yoruba we sing is an ancient dialect. [But] people really connect with it – in a weird way you don’t need to be from Nigeria or Cuba or Brazil, it doesn’t need to be your roots to feel deeply connected with it.”

Although part of the fabric of their early childhood, it was only when they grew more musically inquisitive that the real power of Yoruba took hold. “It was a huge part of our culture,” Lisa says. “It was a huge part of what was surrounding us growing up, but at the same time we rediscovered them when we were 15 or 16 when we started to sing them.”

“There’s a huge difference between hearing them a lot and singing them. So we feel that definitely we rediscovered them and fell in love again.” In the same period, the pair’s adolescent musical explorations proved formative, if a little rocky at first – typical sibling stuff. “We were maybe 12,” Lisa says, before briefly bickering with Naomi about the specific age. “We screamed at each other and said “we are never going to play again, EVER’. And we stopped until we were 16 or 17.”

Both sisters continued to hone their musical skills in parallel, until “life” brought them back together. “Someone asked me if I wanted to do an EP with some of the songs I had written for myself, and Naomi said ‘You are not doing this without me!’, and I said, ‘I’m not!’.”

“We are twins but because we are so different we’re quite separated. We love each other more than anything but our lives are quite separate, we were in different schools, had different friends et cetera,” she says.

“So it pulled us together for the first time. Now we’re 25 hours a day, always together. We fight but we live some amazing things together, and we feel that we complete each other.” The family influence isn’t limited to the sisters’ bond – the passing of their father, Buena Vista Social Club’s Anga Diaz precipitated Naomi’s embrace of percussion, while the pair’s mother and uncle still help Lisa with lyrics on occasion.

“Two people working together is always complicated, no matter if it’s your sister, brother or lover,” she reflects. “Creating with someone is so personal that people you work with feel like they’re part of your family… so it’s kind of the same.”

Ibeyi play WOMADelaide Sunday, March 13 at 2.00pm Saturday, March 12 at 5.00pm, Tickets via WOMADelaide.

WOMADELAIDE 2016 LINEUP

De La Soul
Sarah Blasko
Asha Bhosle
Ainslie Wills
Ajak Kwai
Marcellus Pittman – DJ
숨[su:m]
Tek Tek Ensemble
St. Germain
All Our Exes Live In Texas
Alsarah & The Nubatones
Asian Dub Foundation
Calexico
Cedric Burnside Project
Debashish Bhattacharya
Djuki Mala
Ester Rada
Hazmat Modine
Husky
Ibeyi
kev Carmody
Miles Cleret
Mojo Juju
Mountain Mocha Kilimanjaro
NO ZU
The Once
Osunlade
Quarter Street
Radical Son
Ripley
Sadar Bahar
Sampa The Great
Spiro
The Spooky Men’s Chorale
The Strides
Surahn
Tulegur
Wasted Wanderers
47SOUL
Angélique Kidjo & the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
The Cat Empire
DakhaBrakha
Diego el Cigala
Edmar Castañeda Trio
The Jerry Cans
John Grant
Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Mahsa Marjan Vahdat
Marlon Williams
Orange Blossom
Savina Yannatou & Primavera en Salonico
Seun Kuti & Egypt 80
Songhoy Blues
Violent Femmes
Problems
Zeequil
Mortisville Vs. The Chief
Datakae

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