Vinde Todas

Carme López Fernández has been studying and working on gender roles in Galicia’s musical tradition. Vinde Todas, her debut album as Carmela, is based on a female perspective that the performer and teacher has been researching these last years. And that is precisely why Carmela chooses to begin and end her album with field recordings – reminding us of where it all starts, despite everything that may happen. Each song is named after different women. And what Carmela beautifully shows on Vinde Todas is how she is feeding on these Galician voices and adding her own. Taking the example of the brilliant ‘Lina e Lola, Fumaces’, we hear her limpid voice singing a traditional melody over a raw percussion, but little by little the background becomes more electronically contaminated, and her chant is transformed through experimental techniques, albeit never losing sight of the song’s essence. Adding hurdy-gurdy to synths in the dreamy ‘Hermosinda e as Otilias’, singing on top of the soundscape layers of ‘Corona’, spraying James Blake-y inspired electronics over ‘Nicanora’, or placing a lullaby in a celestial setting in ‘Julia’, it’s all done in a simple and tasteful way.