By Nuria (The Fox) Zapata @ultrasupa
Editor's Note: The release of Mito, the new album by the acclaimed Peruvian artist La lá, gives us the opportunity to connect more deeply with the rising female music scene in that country, one of the most exciting phenomena in Latin America's current cultural landscape. La lá, perhaps one of its key figures, is an important spearhead for focusing the attention of those interested in new music from this continent on a place on the map that has been wrongly ignored and overlooked, precisely at a brilliant moment of creation and exposure. To discuss this album, we've invited a friend of ours, the Lima-born and equally illustrious singer-songwriter La Zorra Zapata.
I remember the first time I saw him play The la It was several years ago in a pink house in Barranco, Lima's bohemian neighborhood. It was just her, her guitar, and a small desk lamp shining in her face. That was perhaps one of the first times I saw a girl with her guitar win over the audience. I suspected that La lá's most appealing quality is that she sings to herself, first finding satisfaction in her own melodies and then sharing that personal spectacle with everyone else. I think La lá has that superpower of making you feel like she's written the songs just for you, as if she's speaking to you intimately. A La lá concert is simply about you and her.
I feel that in Myth (her latest album), above all, shows that need to be seduced by her own nature, with classic rhythms that return with a direct and honest but also poetic discourse. Perhaps the cover is a good clue to what the album offers: a naked woman. I notice something almost whimsical in Myth, For example, in the song The farewell where the rhythm changes abruptly but sincerely, and upon listening, one happily becomes accustomed to that discomfort. The victory of being able to honestly enjoy a free rhythm. Damn, that's beautiful!
In addition, there are the gestures of Myth, where the sound of Lima, the ugly, the unjust, the gray and the sweet, seeps in. As if to give us a glimpse of the landscape where La Lá's songs unfold. The street noise is deafening, but if you listen closely, it becomes a song, and a beautiful one at that. Face. And how lovely to be able to dance salsa without Grandma. “I hear you in the wind and you encourage me” he sings to her, with a voice that effortlessly pirouettes like a kite led by the wind (or maybe the grandmother), supported by a palette of musicians who are up to the task and enhance it.
It's clear that this is an album that won't bore you., to move from celebrating small victories and dancing in pajamas in the kitchen while butter melts on toast, But also to close our eyes and listen to sad stories, and let La lá sing our sorrows and fears. How much you can sing for us, dear La lá.
And so it becomes inevitable that I feel drawn to La lá's music. I'm moved when a song speaks for me before I can even understand it myself. “Illiterate in love but able to read between the lines”, like a fortune teller's omen. That's sometimes how it is with music, isn't it?
I find it hard to fall into the traps of a marketing strategy. When musical offerings reek of a thirst for success, of numbers and statistics, I don't take the bait. With La lá, the aroma that comes from her songs is honest, it's pure, it's her. And don't think I know her that well, I've probably only spoken to her a couple of times. But La Lá speaks like she sings, moves her hands like she sings, laughs like she sings, fights like she sings, and it's so refreshing to see that consistency in an artist who ultimately reflects who she is. Without struggle and carefree, it is resolved in that inner world that happily allows us to contemplate.
It is precisely in this era, where we all have to be "winners" and "know-it-alls," that surrendering to the game of making an album exactly as one damned pleases is an act of courage. And it's gratifying and beautiful how satisfied we are with the result. Myth: Rockers, salsa fans, folk musicians, those who know nothing about music, and those who know everything about it.
As a novice singer-songwriter, my soul smiles knowing that La lá will be talked about when several summers have passed; A pioneering Peruvian woman who leads her musical ship, from her innocence and honesty. And that ship will go far! Full of multicolored lights, and Peru will go with it. I wish we could emulate that dedication in doing what needs to be done., without too many selfies, without desperate little gifts for likes y followers. The success of La lá is its music, everything else is just minor embellishment. In Myth, "One song is several," and I think it's an album that you'll have to navigate through several times to fully explore it and discover its secrets. The songs become their own anthems.
In these times of viruses, which not only leave you breathless but also leave you without peace due to the speed of a desperate virtual world, It is appreciated that we are given 10 songs without the exhaustion of singles, released endlessly. A good starter followed by a main course, so that you can take your own time to enjoy it.
As I finish writing this, the record is playing for the tenth time and I'm still finding hidden messages., like someone returning to a book already read and finding a new, invisible story.