Julieta Laso: intense and daring artist, between folklore, rock and video with Lucrecia Martel

His intensity as an interpreter is matched by his audacity. Juliet Lasoone of the most interesting voices in River Plate music, has released her third album black heada real challenge for its original bandoneon accompaniment and a hand-picked repertoire.

“It’s a different album from the one I did, I am accompanied by four bandoneons, which is a daring line-up that has done very little in tango and with one voice, I think never”, says the artist during the talk with Clarione, in his home in Buenos Aires, in Palermo. Laso will present black head Friday 8 and 15 July, at CAFF.

The album is directed by double bass player Yuri Venturín, who also conducts the Orquesta Típica Fernández Fierro, who had Laso as a singer for four years and with whom he recorded two albums (Inhabit Y Now and forever).

“It was Yuri’s idea to put together a bandoneon-only accompaniment. I was a little scared at first, but after trying how we sounded, I liked it. We work the bandoneons like an orchestra. It’s not the typical way you listen to a singer’s accompaniment, ”Laso pointed out.

-Is it like giving the instrument a well-deserved protagonism?

-It is such an important tool for our culture and we feel it is so multifaceted that some things out there have been wasted. Now, Yuri has added to the proposal, in addition to the double bass, percussion with a norteño bass drum. It is the first of my albums that has a Nordic color and I even dared to write poetry for it Proclamationargument with openings black head.

She is a singer who obviously needs strong artistic emotions and this makes her a daring performer. For Laso, this proposal has reached a different form of expression. “In a way, I feel that through the way we put this music together we find a sound,” she said.

A promise kept

This album represents a happy reunion between Laso and the musician Venturín. When Laso decided to move to Salta to live with his partner Lucrecia Martel, he left Fernández Fierro, who greeted her with a dinner where the double bass player suggested producing an album. Four years have passed since then and although the pandemic ended up forcing the couple to settle in that province, Laso continued to come and go from Salta to Buenos Aires.

“I have been living in Salta for two years and last year we started recording this album. In this too it was different black head, as it was gradually registered. For example, we recorded two songs per trip. Something I had never experienced. You always come in and record the album or almost everything, ”Laso recalled.

-How was the registration then?

– There was a lot of evidence. It’s the album I’ve tried the most on, and since it’s orchestrated there has been a lot of teamwork for the nuances, the unisons … All that structure required a lot of rehearsing. Yuri insisted that I find a higher register and at first I resisted, but in the end I liked how I played and besides, trying so much and recording little by little gave me a lot of confidence.

Laso said they continue to rehearse hard for these concerts with a bandoneon line consisting of Sofía Calvet, Milagros Caliva, Ayelén Pais and Natsuki Nishiara and Yuri Venturín on double bass. “We want the live sound to sound like on record; Also, Walter Chacón, a producer who will be in sound, will come with us, ”she said.

“It is a great challenge to bring it live, at all levels, air, melodies, high notes”, said the singer who feels black head “like a lot of rock, but I understand it’s not rock, even if it has that energy”.

As for the repertoire, Laso revealed that he had chosen compositions with Venturín. For example, he suggested my sad butterflyby Daniel Bull, cursed heart and some other pearls, all very good compositions, rarely heard as I sing about anyonefrom Zitarrosa, or call me when it dawns, of Guaraní, and I have proposed others. We agree on the choice and I think the result is a strong poem with some political content “.

The title of the album is linked to the way Laso feels about the country he belongs to. “black head It is for me, a bit of the country to which I belong and which tries to counteract that idea of ​​a white Argentina that is not real and that this city insists on looking at Europe a lot “.

A work that from the beginning offers an intense atmosphere. “I want to burn / I want to burn / in the mirror of your soul / I want to see myself”Laso sings Proclamation. Escape of absences it deepens that atmosphere, while bandoneons fuel the drama. cursed heart confirms where this proposal is going; an undoubted conceptual tone through some texts sung with anger, with rebellion, sheltered from that melancholy sound of the bandoneons.

In light brown flowerperhaps the duo Laso-Venturín created the urban copla which here sounds like a requiem. call me when it dawns It has a delicate orchestral work that creates a chiaroscuro play with the voice. In Fall the spirit of tango emerges victorious and enters I sing about anyoneLaso shines as an intense singer with no false postures. my sad butterfly it’s all beauty, the voice as well as the arrangements describe one of the great moments of this album.

The beginnings

Her beginnings were as an actress until the age of 21, when she decided to devote herself to singing. Her last work was a musical with an important participation as a singer but, at the request of Alejandro Balbis, director of the musical, she changed theater to sing and began studying with Beatriz Muñoz.

He auditioned at the milonga Orsay with Julián Peraltale, who proposes her to record with the Astillero ensemble and from there she begins to sing accompanied by a trio of guitarists composed of Juan Otero, Germán Montaldo and Leandro Angeli.

In 2014 Fernández Fierro joined the typical orchestra to replace Chino Laborde. Yurui Venturin summoned her to join the group on their way to Sydney. It was in this atmosphere that Laso’s voice was able to stand out as one of the interpreters of this new look at tango that the Fernández Fierro orchestra represents so well.

After four years in the orchestra, Laso left to develop his solo career. From that moment he launched Martingale (2018) and the boiler (2021), both with the collaboration of Diego Baiardi and Lisandro Silva Echevarría.

Laso highlighted the difference between these albums and black head. “Everything has changed, from the musical direction to the recording engineer and it is a change that I needed. A change designed not to get bored with what I do; I also think the next album will be different from black head. A lot of things have happened in recent times that change you. “

This change is accompanied by other personal aspects. “I’m turning forty and living in Salta is something else. I was born in Buenos Aires and have always been aware of the bubble in which you live in this city and now when I come back I feel it very clearly. This is leading me to participate in provincial festivals as a reflection of how tired I am Buenos Aires. My move translates into a transformative experience ”, concluded the artist.

Information: Julieta Laso will present Cabeza negra, on Friday 8 and 15 July, at CAFF, Sánchez de Bustamente 772. Passline.com Tickets.

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