Title: Sanación ["Healing"].
Artist: María José Llergo.
Year: 2020.
Place: Pozoblanco, Cordova (Andalusia, Spain).
Genre(s): Flamenco / New Flamenco / Experimental.
Label: Sony Music.
María José Llergo, born in Cordova, Romani, and Flamenca, she hits hard in the music scene with her first EP. An EP where anybody who listens carefully, can perceive that, despite having to skip comparisons with Rosalía all the time, this work is hers, and hers alone. And we're not having this debate, so let's focus on what matters: María José Llergo.
This is an album I've been waiting for all my life. One that has one and only concept: Healing. This work, produced by another Andalusian artist, Lost Twin, is 7 tracks only. And as a looking glass, they reflect the experiences and roots of the artist. An artist that is cantaora (female Flamenco singer) and composer. And Romani. Andalusian. Flamenca. And for me, a shaman. La Llergo* is a shaman, because I haven't always been an Andalusian Flamenco guy. Yes, I've always loved to hear elements of my land's music tradition mixed with my genres: Rock, Metal, Alternative Electronica. But I couldn't assimilate to classical Flamenco, until she helped me do it. Until her voice, her compositions and her poetry connected with me. They took me to those roots that a decade ago, or maybe more, got me interested in Flamenco and its origins. To listen this genre that is the product of an indigenous, Southern Mediterranean tradition (although already mixed), and interacting with the traditions brought by Romani people, Moors, Sephardic Jews and Black people. People that without them, this genre would sound totally different. A genre that in spite of being forbidden, persecuted and more, it survived, with all its memory, to our days. And even today, it keeps mutating and adapting to survive. And all those folks, they provided wisdom to the genre, wisdom that I wanna learn. Because if Flamenco is something to Andalusian people, those are 3 things: memory, wisdom... and rebellion.
So, before reviewing this album, and although I owe much to many Andalusian artists, I must say this first, since it's vital now: Thanks, María José Llergo. Whether you know it or not, you set me on the spiritual and cultural path I'm walking on right now.
Once said that, let's review the album, okay? And since the album is very Andalusian, but also punky, in its expression of pure freedom… What better way to do it than going song by song?
1 - ¿De Qué Me Sirve Llorar? ["What's Crying For?"]
This opening song has a very special intro. A recording. You can hear somebody working the field with a weeding hoe. Because María José Llergo has always said, repeatedly, that she first started singing while imitating her grandpa, that she used to make company while he was plowing the fields. In the end, the beats of the weeding hoe turn into music. The introduction follows with a recording on her and her grandpa, kind of reproducing what she defined like almost a ritual when she came back to her hometown and went to visit her grandparents, first.
When the voice recording fades, her singing voice makes an appearance. It is a solemn song, with peasant references. Like the start of the album. Like her own roots. A song with a persistent percussion (although not aggressive or violent at all), like a mantra. And María José's voice rises in all its splendour, as high as the columns she references in the lyrics.
- "While I was plowing my fields, four columns rose".
- "What's crying for, if singing I reach the heavens, which is where I wanna be?".
2 - Niña de las Dunas [Girl of the Dunes]
As second track, we've got her first single ever, "Niña de las Dunas". Almost a traditional song, just with Flamenco guitar, voice and hand claps. A tranquil yet dramatic rhythm, and lyrics that could easily touch the dark night of the soul. A song that has a cultural charge, following a guitar that although not violently played, it imbues us in a torrent of dramatic emotions.
Thank to this song, I felt in my bones I was ready to explore classic Flamenco. And that's what I'm currently doing.
And it's all thanks to this one. This isn't only a song. It's a moon tale. And like all folktales, it's here to remain and last, and be told... or sung.
- "Girl of the dunes, sleep well: you carry on your forehead a divine mark. Girl of the dunes, fear you not: I'll be with you in your dark flight".
- "The moon turned into a knife and stabbed her on the chest, staining in blood-red her cotton dress. She (Moon) took her for herself, she made her a companion, some people call her Venus thinking that she's a star".
3 - Soy Como el Oro [I Am Like Gold]
A song with popular lyrics, a trilla, specifically. A working chant, interpreted by this girl from a working family. Both, she and this song, are truly like gold.
This song has a calm, atmospheric electronic base, and she sings over that, creating a relaxed yet ecstatic ambience that makes you soar, floating over golden fields of cereals.
And that's all I need to say.
- "I am like gold: the more you despise me, the more valuable I become".
4 - El Hombre de las Mil Lunas
Again, a very solemn song, very easy to listen to, mixing the acoustic sound of the guitar with some electronica, and an Arabic flavour that can make you swoon. Even the small poetry tastes like Al-Andalus here. Guitar over electronica that will please the hardest of listeners, I'm sure.
- "The man of a thousand moons has already got lost in my night. For his desire to have my body he has sold even his name".
5 - Nana del Mediterráneo [Lullaby of the Mediterranean]
This is a lullaby. And for those who don't know, yes, Flamenco, or Andalusian lullabyes, are cradle songs. But as any other Flamenco's palo, it has rules, customs, variations... And as María José herself said: "I write lullabyes to help the dead rest". And nothing says that like this lullaby, this funeral rite for all the children that have died in the Mediterranean Sea because of politics and borders.
This song always makes me cry. Each time I listen to it, I think to myself: "not this time, now I'm used to it". But her voice hits mystical vibrations. So, as soon as she hits certain notes, my tears drop from my eyes. It's a natural cause-and-effect phenomenon: like the fire that burns the skin, going breathless underwater or the rose that prickles with its thorns.
- "White foam that washes the sea, you made him a cradle of water and salt. The little stars in the sky, with nacre they comb his hair".
- "Sleep, my child, cry no more: serene waters, serene waters are rocking you now...".
6 - El Péndulo
The most experimental song in the album, wrapped in an electronic ambience. This song, like a pendulum in its pendulous motion, it joins the mystic of Andalusian songs, with much more contemporary genres in a delightful psychodelia. This song sounds as modern and yet so old, as the pendulum itself. And it's mystical, dark, tragic.
- "Nobody drinks from your water. Nobody knows your creed. Nobody knows where they guide, the chants that I carry inside".
- "I know that nobody knows the algebra of your hair".
- "You stare at me like the sea stares at the sky".
- "She saw how they trembled, the flowers in the graveyard. For them not to cry, the wind was caressing them".
7 - Me Miras Pero No Me Ves [You Look at Me But You Don't See Me]
My favourite song. The first one I heard from her. The one that made me say "Gothic Flamenco", although she probably disagrees. But, it is. A beautiful, Southern darkness, I mean.
This song is a collection of extremes. Past and Future. Acoustic guitar and bass. With modern electronic but claps as percussion, reminding me of anything ancient, like the old Baetica, or India.
A song about countrywomen, like her own grandma. Women who worked the fields as much as men but they couldn't sign in social security programs because they were only seen as wives to the countrymen. Invisible. "Looked at, but unseen".
A song with a bass that hits you, but accompanied by hand claps, it feels tribal, primal, ancient. A guitar sounds with surgical precision at the right moments, and a dark, soft electronic ambience also follows them, adding a modern feeling, and tragedy to the sound. The mastery this song requires, in my opinion, is the perfect end in ecstasy for this work.
- "You look at me but you don't see me".
- "If the voice of the field pulsates within time, they're burning the herbs of your memory. If the voice of the field pulsates within time, and is dying the girl that I have inside".
- "The rose with its thorns come to see me. There, in the 4 little corners, they give me death".
- "Candela, open the door, for I come to visit you... There, in the 4 little corners, (there are) 7 serpents".
CONCLUSION:
And that's it. What a trip, huh?! This was a travel in space and time. To the past and the future of Andalusia. A wonderful experiment filled with tradition. And if you allow me a reflection, there's a key word here: melisma.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as me. And if that's the case, please, show love and support to the artist. The Gods know that Andalusian artists are very underrated.
The best: All main singles are included. The union of modern music and tradition. The variety of sounds, and how unique they are. The lyrics are pure Andalusian poetry, and very García Lorca-inspired. Beyond any musical education, María José Llergo's voice is a gift.
The worst: 7 songs only. The "Nana de los Rosales" (meaning "Lullaby of the Rose Bushes") wasn't included and it was great too. It's only digital and vynil, no CD format.
10/10.
*1 In Andalusian Spanish, it's common to include an article (male is "el" and female is "la") before an individual's name. It's a long, long custom for people you already know, although Castilan purists deem it vulgar, low-class and typical of uneducated people, only.
