A post "eaten up" long ago, almost a year ago...Lhasa de Sela (1972-2010)Dreamin/Without breathing
Soon this space will be too small........... "We have always heard something ancestral coming through her. She has always spoken from the threshold between the worlds, outside of time. She has always sung of human tragedy and triumph, estrangement and seeking with a Witness's wisdom. She has placed her life at the feet of the Unseen."wrote a friend ofLhasa de Sela (b.1972-d.2010) And I'll go outside/To the huge hillside/Where the wild winds blow/And the cold stars shine/I'll put my foot/On the living road/And be carried from here/To the heart of the world/The I'll die three times/And be born again/In a little box/With a golden key/And a flying fish/Will set me free/Soon this space will be too small..... Lhasa distilled often surreal images into words which she set to brooding melodies, with loping rhythms that evoked mysterious journeys. Often IMHO disconcerting, her songs express a kind of place where imagination and reality meet, and where courage triumphs over fear and darkness. These are certainly 21st-century songs of enchantment filled with songs fuelled by dreams, love, relationships and life events filtered through an imagination shaped by folk tales. As known Lhasa De Sela was the exotic half-Mexican half-Jewish singer from Canada. Listen to her music, and you might figure the influences by fellow Canadians Leonard Cohen and the latter-day jazz-influence of Joni Mitchell. Her jazz sensibilities melded with her interest in the same shadows and substance, fragility and strengths seen in Leonard Cohen's music and lyrics. The difference is that"the grimness and grit" in Cohen's work was replaced by an intoxicating and smoky voice and the pretty sensibilities of minor-key Latin balladry. (Some of the music harkens to the gentle and melancholy melodies of Victor Jara, the Chilean martyr and friend of Phil Ochs..) Crying face to the wall.../Crying/And there is no more/Maybe I die/Where are you?Dreaming/Face to the wall/The city burns down/Dreaming/Without breathing/I want to love you Praying Saint Mary She died on New Year's Day 2010, almost a year ago,just before midnight, following over a year of medical treatment for breast cancer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJaOptRE00E&feature=player_embedded http://tinyurl.com/7ep7opa Lhasa De Sela - Rising [Live In Montreal] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6poApBn_KqM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hTpR-TYTZ0 Lhasa de Sela - Rising (2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brqK1Dogw48&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA9q_92D87E&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyMFGlWZiYM&feature=related To know more about Lhasa, hear at first four tracks; "Desierto" in Spanish from her first album ("La Llorona" 1997), "La Confession" in French from "The Living Road," 2003, and two English tracks, "Bells" and "A Fish On Land" and the simply titled "Lhasa." 2009.
