A while back I blogged about a new favorite podcast called Radio Lab. During one of their episodes they used the music of a Juana Molina, an Argentinian singer/songwriter/one woman band for their breaks and her music was so interesting to the listeners that the Radio Lab guys decided to do a mini-episode on her. That’s how I first heard her and I’m so glad they did it. Apparently Molina had always wanted to be a musician but by happen-chance became a huge hit on Argentinian television. What was supposed to be a temporary gig turned into a career and music got set aside. Then, while on a break from the show for which she was extremely popular she realized she wanted to go back to her first love, music. At first she tried performing with others but it didn’t suit her and she now does it all solo. In her latest work she just builds up layer over layer of sound to get a rich textured background to her beautiful vocals. Her earlier stuff, which I also really like, is more spare and more singer/songwriter like (her and a guitar basically). The sounds are somewhat different (between her earlier and later stuff) but I like both for different reasons. The video for Un Dia (off her recent album) is below. I love the track but am not crazy about video so I’m also including another version where the song is set to the paintings of an artist called David Roberts.
