romancero

la bien querida ~ romancero (elefant records, 2009)

ana fernandez-villaverde is la bien querida. she caught some attention with a demo from 2007 and since then, there was much expectation for this release.
the music is a mixture of sounds/influences that goes from the melodies like la buena vida, family to traditional arabian music and flamenco. her lyrics tends to talk about love and heartbreaking. that makes her be described by some people as the female stephin merritt, from the magnetic fields...
the arrangements are beautiful... rich in sounds to be discovered little by little. david rodrigues (from la estrella de david and junco y diamante) is behind production and does a beautiful job... in fact, i think he's one of the most creative musicians in the spanish scene at the moment... "Ana wanted to domesticate David’s stratospheric arrangements and cubist production toward clean sounds that fit better with the friendly environment of her beautiful songs." (from elefant's site).
the album contains moments of flamenco-influenced songs, others full of orchestration or filled with beats and bleeps.
it's a beautiful album with great moments ( like the one formed by the first three songs and its extremely delicate mix of instrumentations contrastating with the simplicity of the lyrics and ana's voice). we'll probably hear a lot about la bien querida in the future, but the especulation around this release was too much.



01. ya no
02. corpus christi
03. de momento abril
04. a.d.n.
05. 9.6
06. cuando lo intentas
07. el zoo absoluto
08. 7 medidas de seguridad
09. bendita
10. santa fé
11. los estados generales
12. golpe de estado

video for the first single of the album 'de momento abril'


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