Archivo Pittoresco by Lula Pena

With only 2 albums released since 1998, the reclusive Portuguese singer, composer, guitarist and poet has achieved a rare feat: gathering a stream of devoted followers worldwide, a kind of international secret society whose ranks grow with each of her too rare appearances

Lula Pena follows her own rules, not only in her career but in her very music. Her voice is haunting and moving, her guitar style unique, her approach deeply emotional yet also conceptual. She has a quasi-shamanic way of becoming one with her instrument when performing these long, rambling pieces, during which wood, string, words, human body, breath and voice all merge into a single, supernatural fabulous beast.

Lula Pena's music is a living organism. It sails on a strange ocean, bordered by continents called folk blues, flamenco, French chanson, phado (that's how she likes to spell it), bossa nova and others, grazing them all and leaving none intact.

Archivo Pittoresco wonderfully reflects Lula Pena's inspired wandering: the album's thirteen tracks often flow seamlessly into one another, as she sings (in Portuguese, French, English, Spanish, Greek, Italian) lyrics and poems by writers ranging from Manos Hadjidakis, Violeta Parra and herself to Belgian surrealist Scutenaire to the composers of the original Twilight Zone soundtrack and to many lesser-known names or anonymous authors.

Let's follow the invitation contained in the last song title on the album, and "Come Wander with [Her]"

One of the greatest singers born in Portugal but raised in the world, Lula Pena has become somewhat of a myth. And all sort of stories about a ‘reclusive and reluctant diva’ transpired in these twelve years that took her to record again. “Troubadour”, her second album, crosses genres and suggests a Fado Exquis, a sort of palimpsest, that enables the listener to discover all music.

mbarimusica.com