Pecata Beata

Pecata Beata is the third album by Catalan singer, composer and clarinettist Carola Ortiz (who contributed clarinet on Anandi Bhattacharya’s acclaimed debut album). It’s conceived as a homage to female poets from the region and includes songs based on works from influential 20th-century writers such as Mercè Rodoreda and also more contemporary works such as from Anna Gual. Ortiz’s first album, Sirin from 2016, had a stripped-down beauty, which featured her attractive clarinet playing as well as the lovely but not often heard bass clarinet. On this new disc, the instrumentation is still acoustic, with guitar, strings, double bass and percussion forming the accompaniment, but the arrangements feel over-cooked for her gentle, elusive compositional style.

While tracks such as ‘La Rosa Als Llavis’ and the instrumental ‘Carmeta’ show off her playing, too often the results are rather melodramatic, with several tracks sounding like a cabaret turn. The album info lists influences including tango, fado, bulerías, habaneras and Balkan music. In truth, it seems to consider ‘world music’ to be a single genre, taking a little of this and a little of that, with a poorly focused result that hides rather than highlights her personality.