Out of the Blue

It’s reassuring that some things don’t change. For their second album, the Brussels-based international trio of former street musicians follow the template of their delicious 2021 debut, Soaked (reviewed in Songlines #166): exquisite harmonies steeped in melancholy; spare, tasteful arrangements; a mix of song and slam poetry, sung and spoken in a dizzying range of languages; generic influences embracing klezmer, chanson, Iberian folk, jazz and more; echoes of artists like Lhasa de Sela and Rodrigo Amarante – all entwined by a delicate yet potent female sensibility. The accompaniment again takes the form of Sura Solomon’s accordion and ukulele, Amber in ’t Veld’s acoustic guitar and Marieke Werner’s velvety clarinet, backed intermittently by choral voices, double bass and a wistful trumpet. The result, as Las Lloronas acknowledge, is hard to define but highly distinctive. Just listen for starters to the mix of song and poetry on ‘Run’, or the mournful minor-key opener ‘Belly Blue’, or the a cappella ‘Pequeña’, or the sweetly simple ‘Little Poets’, and let it all flow.

As before, perhaps, but ‘in this album we travel wider and deeper,’ Las Lloronas suggest, ‘with humour, sensitivity and questions.’ My only question is: how far can a winning formula take them?