DALT, LUCRECIA - A DANGER TO OURSELVES (CD)

"Lucrecia Dalt's A Danger to Ourselves is a daring yet intimate reflection on the unfiltered complexities of human connection. Stripping away fictional narratives present on the artist's last several album endeavors, A Danger to Ourselves arrives from a place of emotional sincerity. Sonically unraveling like a deeply personal conversation, Dalt's voice is focal, supported by a lush array of acoustic orchestration and percussive instrumentation, and an esteemed cast of collaborators. Dalt, born in Pereira, Colombia, was raised in a family of music enthusiasts who encouraged her to pick up a guitar when she was nine. Dalt followed this creative impulse, becoming fascinated with computer-based production and left a burgeoning career as a civil engineer, moving from Medellín to Barcelona and ultimately Berlin, where she developed her distinctive, adventurous sound. Her work has spun into increasingly accomplished terrains with Anticlines (2018) and No era sólida (2020), and notably, ¡Ay!, Dalt's 2022 breakthrough sci-fi bolero album. Along the way, Dalt expanded her practice into scoring for films like On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024), HBO series The Baby (2022), and the forthcoming psychological horror Rabbit Trap, while creating sound installations and performances that showcase her luminous modulations and distinctive, evolving vocal approach. A Danger to Ourselves emerged from fragmentary declarations Dalt scribbled while navigating life on tour for ¡Ay!, and the formative moments of a new relationship. She began crystallizing these intimate fragments into musical compositions in January 2024, giving gradual form to a purposeful constellation of songs. The album's sonic architecture builds upon dynamic drum loops provided by collaborator Alex Lázaro, whose percussive backbone, as on ¡Ay!, became a canvas for Dalt's layered vocals. Rather than following conventional melodic structures, the album generates musicality through the interplay of bass lines, rhythms, and compositional design. A Danger to Ourselves reveals Dalt's uncompromising quest for sonic clarity where bold production choices and meticulous recording techniques encourage both voice and instrument to harmonize with newfound depth and radiance. Distinctly anti-conceptual, A Danger to Ourselves is a poetic instinct by which Dalt ushers in an unobstructed focus on the music itself, using vocals that vibrate past the songs' parameters, and observing the beaded echoes of primal, romantic thrill. Dalt's lucid attention to detail is palpable in every measure, a dedication that spins in concentric circles, forming a field that unifies the personal and ethereal. Drawn from intuitive experiments, the album uses simple gestures and intricate compositions to weave wandering lines, as in "divina," which moves between Spanish and English through elastic soundscapes and mesmerizing audial collage. The album title emerged from David Sylvian's lyrics in "cosa rara," an emblematic reflection of the fragility of life, the oscillations of love, and propulsive longings for the miraculous. A Danger to Ourselves mirrors these transcendent states, refracting the complexity of human entanglements and the desire for liberation from dopamine spirals and common pathways towards a more revelatory inner world. A collaborative collage with contributions from numerous acclaimed artists, Sylvian himself played a dual role as co-producer and musician on A Danger to Ourselves. Additional collaborations feature prominently throughout the record, with Juana Molina co-writing and performing on "the common reader," Camille Mandoki adding vocals to "caes," Cyrus Campbell's foundational electric and upright bass work, and Eliana Joy providing backing vocals and string arrangements on multiple tracks. In the luminous depths of A Danger to Ourselves, Dalt orchestrates a profound metamorphosis where the personal becomes universal through sonic alchemy." (label info)