Os Tincoas - O Africanto Dos Tincoas

Os Tincoãs’ album O Africanto Dos Tincoas, released in 1975, is a spiritually charged work within Brazilian music that embodies their unique “africanto” style—a fusion of African roots and Brazilian popular music. The trio from Cachoeira in the Recôncavo Baiano, consisting of Mateus Aleluia, Heraldo, and Dadinho, draws on the rich Afro-Brazilian traditions of that region, where Candomblé rhythms and Catholic influences coexist. With sparse instrumentation such as guitar, atabaque, agogô, and xequerê, they create space for exceptional vocal interplay, including falsetto leads and two-part harmonies inspired by the call-and-response structures of Candomblé rituals. The songs invoke orixás, ancestors, the ocean, and exile, imbued with themes of suffering and resilience.

Recorded during the darkest years of Brazil’s military dictatorship, when Afro-Brazilian religions faced repression and surveillance, the album functions as a quiet form of resistance without losing its gentle, luminous qualities. It deepens the spiritual explorations of their 1973 debut and retains a sacred intensity that has made it something of a holy grail in Brazilian music. Despite their limited recognition outside Bahia during their active years, rediscovery through the internet brought their legacy back into the spotlight, with Mateus Aleluia serving as a living link to this tradition.