Lido Pimienta: La Belleza review – Gregorian chant meets dembow rhythm in a work of remarkable depth

Five years since her Grammy-nominated breakthrough grounds Miss Colombia, vocalist and shaper Lido Pimienta has taken a extremist displacement successful direction. On Miss Colombia, Pimienta combined sprightly electro popular with cumbia rhythms and soaring vocals to critique racism and misogyny – now, her 4th medium La Belleza (The Beauty) is simply a nine-track orchestral suite touching connected everything from Gregorian chant to strings-laden emotion songs and dembow rhythms.

Cover creation for La Belleza by Lido Pimienta. Photograph: ANTI-

Inspired by Catholic requiem wide euphony and the luscious harpsichord people of Czech composer Luboš Fiser’s people to 1970 movie Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, Pimienta and shaper Owen Pallett began penning and arranging for the 60-piece Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra during the Covid lockdowns. The effect is simply a moving enactment of singular depth.

There is play aplenty. Pimienta harnesses the trilling hostility of the Philharmonic’s strings conception connected the militaristic code of Ahora, intended arsenic a conflict outcry for her Indigenous Wayuu roots. Aún Te Quiero employs thrumming counterpoint phrasing successful the horn conception arsenic Pimienta sings a lament for her past self, and El Dembow del Tiempo ingeniously layers a percussive dembow bushed implicit baroque flutes, producing a strangely propulsive caller sound.

While the instrumentals are deftly arranged and often surprising, it’s Pimienta’s agile, flawless vocals that bargain the show: effortlessly doubling the yearning trumpet melodies of requiem wide euphony connected Overturn, performing a sweet, soaring falsetto astatine the extremity of Ahora, powerfully leaping done glissandos connected the harp-plucking of Mango and layering poignant, full-throated harmonies connected person Busca La Luz. Ascending from whispered intimacy to bellowing unit arsenic she yearns for affection connected Quiero Que Me Beses (I Want You to Kiss Me), her maturing dependable is arsenic captivating arsenic the mightiness of immoderate orchestra.

Also retired this month

Egyptian shaper Elkotsh’s debut medium Rhlt Jdi (Nyege Nyege Tapes) combines doom-laden synth bass with celebratory mahraganat rhythms to nutrient a thunderous caller blend. The hammering techno footwear drums and siren-like melodies of Mwlid Ala’sar are an infectious highlight. A caller compilation of unreleased euphony from Cameroonian musicologist Francis Bebey, Trésor Magnétique (Africa Seven), is an Afrofuturist treasure trove, blending everything from drum machines with mbira melody to breathy pygmy flutes with synth buzz, confounding genre definitions from the 1970s onwards. Singer Manika Kaur’s latest medium Devocean (Six Degrees) is simply a soothing postulation of spiritual euphony from Arabic, Sikh, Celtic and Indigenous traditions. At times successful information of straying towards wafting New Age ambience, tracks similar Māori opus Wakan Tanka negociate to find poignancy successful the blend of Kaur’s gossamer dependable with the earthy didgeridoo.