Jota de Morir

Launched in 2018, all-female trio Marala specialise in Balearic, Valencian and Catalan musical traditions. With minimal accompaniment – staccato percussion, droning synths – they intone dances, death songs, labour and work songs and other elements of their native songbook, giving voice to ‘two silenced universes’: traditional music and women. The singers – Selma Bruna, Clara Fiol and Sandra Monfort – display considerable virtuosity, harmonising impeccably, exploring a range of textures. The mood shifts from barely controlled rage on ‘Disguise’ to murderous love on ‘Nocturno’ to an affirmative embrace of death on ‘Testament’ – ‘Let my will be extinguished, there is no eternal fire. No, there is no eternal fire.’ Subtle use of distortion, sudden percussive punctuation and carefully modulated crescendos by musical producers Jordi Casadesús and Pau Vallvé add moments of surprise and intensity to an enigmatic, ethereal album.