Lhasa de Sela - La Llorona (1997/2013) [Hi-Res]

Some might have seen Lhasa’s first album, “La Llorona”, as a curiosity, an exotic accident. The singer and songwriter appeared from nowhere in 1997 with an album that defied definition, capturing a Latin world of her own imagination born of an itinerant childhood spent between Mexico and the US. The music was both familiar and truly unique, a mix of ranchero music, Eastern European gypsy music, country, and popular song writing, with intensely personal lyrics in Spanish, and a passionate vocal delivery. The album was written and produced in Montréal, and in many ways could not have been made anywhere else. These are songs inspired by a warm country but written in a cold one, with a Brontë-like romanticism, a wry and literate sense of humor, and moments of startling emotional rawness.

When they heard it, people from North America and Europe sighed and said “Ah, Mexico…”, and Mexicans said, “What strange music! Where is she from?”

The album made its way through Canada, France, then through half of the world, winning prizes (including a Juno and a Felix) and selling more than 700,000 copies (a surprising accomplishment for a non-commercial, non-traditional Spanish-language album). “La Llorona” was so thoroughly embraced by its fans that it has become a modern classic of sorts, always under the radar, always being discovered by new admirers, always as surprising and familiar as it was when it first appeared 12 years ago.

'Half-Mexican American, half-Jewish American and all rainbow chile, singer Lhasa de Sela's Spanish-language, world music/alt-rock debut shimmers with honest emotionalism, with no trace of the posturing and whining that passes these days for deep, girlish thoughts. The girl's young, but she's equipped with imagination, confidence, and technique enough to take that husky, urgent alto anywhere she wants. And she goes there. Guitarist-producer-arranger Yves Desrosiers cloaks all this splendor in rapturous arrangements that include, among other elements, the sound of rain, flamenco-influenced guitar, and a slide bass of his own design. Even if you don't understand Spanish, you can't miss the point ... the feelings. Lhasa's just begun, but her stranger-than-fiction background and dazzling gifts already place her among music's top-rung storytellers.' (Elena Oumano)

Lhasa De Sela, vocals
Yves Desrosiers, guitar, lap steel guitar, saw, lap steel bass, accordion, banjo, percussion
Mara Tremblay, violin
Duane 'Nervous Norman' Larson, clarinet
Didier Dumoutier, accordion
Jean Sabourin, sousaphone
Mario Legare, bass, acoustic bass
Francois Lalonde, percussion, drums, programming

Recorded at Chez Frank Studio, Montreal, Canada.

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