Sometimes a great back story is more than enough to pique your interest — just take Brazilian born cellist/vocalist Dom La Nena. Moving from Brazil to France with her family when she was a young girl, she spent the next few years begging for cello lessons and eventually moved to Argentina by herself at the age of 13 to be trained by a highly respected cellist. She was then introduced to English singer Jane Birkin and wound up touring with her and drawing much of her formative experiences from the time she spent on the road. It was during this time of constant travel that the basic shape of her debut LP, Ela, began to take shape. Featuring her ethereal vocals and haunting cello, the album was a beautifully stark examination of young angst drawn from a deep well of old-beyond-her-years maturity. Shortly after the release of Ela earlier this year, she began to envision a collection of solo songs that would feature only her voice and cello, and the end result of those thoughts became the upcoming Golondrina EP (out October 22nd), which includes covers by The National, Lhasa de Sela, and Stephan Eicher — and a single original song called “Golondrina.”
On “Golondrina,” Dom La Nena trusts in her cello and wonderfully evocative voice to conjure wisps of dramatic images and heartbroken melodies. Set against the swaying strings of her cello, she slowly unfurls note after note, bending them in turn to run parallel to her vocal harmonies. And the fact that she sings this song in French adds an air of heightened mystery and unpredictability that might have been missing otherwise. But the song seems to exist only for the briefest of moments, like watching smoke curl around your fingers before it rises into the air and disperses. She has created something very special with “Golondrina” — a song that demands your attention while staying just on the edge of your periphery. It’s a continual game of musical hide and seek, and it doesn’t appear as though she’s going to be an easy catch. But the chase is why we’re here, right?
Beats Per Minute is pleased to premiere the single, “Golondrina,” from Dom La Nena’s upcoming EP of the same name.
