My two most recent purchases are a couple of odd birds from a Colombian experimental musician and an Australian nun.
LUCRECIA DALT
A Danger to Ourselves
I have a feeling I came across Lucrecia Dalt before, but her music must not have clicked with me until her latest album. Her style is rather hard to describe. She sings in English and Spanish, her vocals are often hushed and whispery, and have a dark, seductive, haunting quality to them. She incorporates textured electronics with distinctly Latin rhythms and some very unconventional percussion that reminded me of Tom Waits in his weirder period, or Fiona Apple’s last two albums maybe. Speaking of Tom Waits, the opener cosa rara transforms into a duet featuring spoken word in gravelly baritone that brought Mr Waits to my mind even more so.
This is the kind of abstract, avant-garde record that more often than not would do absolutely nothing for me, but for whatever reason I really like Dalt’s style and the enigmatic, nocturnal mood of the album. I won’t lie, the fact that she sings mostly in Spanish probably makes it feel more compelling and exotic. One of the loveliest moments here is the short and sweet amorcito caradura, a more straightforward nod to the acoustic folk music of Colombia. Definitely an artist to dig into further.
SISTER IRENE O’CONNOR
Fire of God’s Love
Once in a while you come across something genuinely singular, like this 1973 album recorded in Australia by two Franciscan nuns, Sister Irene O’Connor and Sister Marimil Lobregat. The result is a stranger kind of devotional music, a collection of simple, spectral and often very pretty folk songs, with Sister Irene’s sweet airy voice floating over acoustic guitar, piano, synth organ and drum machine. Intentionally or not, there’s a curious psychedelic vibe, especially on the opener and my personal favourite, Fire (Luke 12:49), where the echoey quality of the vocals gives it a mystical feeling. It’s also just plain catchy!
Fire of God’s Love is very much a religious, worshipful record, celebrating faith and God. It may not touch an atheist like me in the way Sister Irene intended, but you don’t need to be a devout Christian to be moved by its sincerity. Many songs, like Nature Is a Song, Mary Was ‘There’ and Light (John 8:12), have a soothing, lullaby-like feel I find very comforting. I’m perhaps a bit less fond of the more openly instructional songs like Teenager’s Chorus, though they’re still too gentle to truly ruffle my feathers. I have a feeling that it will be an even better album to listen to on a dark evening in winter.
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