Tcheka, born Manuel Lopes Andrade, in a small, remote spot on the island of Santiago, Cape Verde, on 20 July 1973, has created an unique and exquisite style that is a testament to the global influences he has embraced. His essence is impossible to grasp, let alone pin down – he is neither modernist, nor traditionalist, and his music resists any easy categorization or comparison. While referencing multiple genres from Cape Verde (batuku, funaná, finason, tabanka, morna and coladera), Tcheka’s music is also a busy intersection of Brazilian and African pop, traditional forms, folk, jazz, blues, rock, literature, anthropology and film. It is never just Cape Verdean, and it’s never just music, but it’s always captivating. Tcheka’s fifth album, Boka Kafé, which was released in 2017, consists of solo pieces that highlight his inimitable form, mastery on guitar and unmistakable vocals. In 2024, Tcheka released the album Spera Mundo, where he claims his creative freedom as an evolution of the music we know from Cape Verde: a divergence, a very personal and unique opening, like an “unexpected aspect of creolization”. The jazz musicians he surrounded himself with for Spera Mundo have a mission to respond to the injunctions of his vision.