Breathe Out

Having grown up at somewhat of a crossroads between Britain, France and Spain, Luna Silva, fortified by fellow musicians The Wonders, takes us on a far-reaching journey with her second album, Breathe Out. With influences stemming from all corners of the globe, this is a delicate record full of intricacy, navigating between her three languages to delightful effect.

Opener ‘Corps de Jour’, with its Cuban-tinged rhythms, sounds like it comes straight out of the Hispanic soundscape but is composed entirely in French. The album is full of these juxtapositions; Celtic melodies from Brittany follow Moroccan Gnawa riffs, Cuban guitar is joined by mandolin, ukulele and cavaquinho (a Portuguese four-stringed lute). ‘Hoja Roja’ is a hypnotic, almost Balkan track, with lulling vocals supported by Thibaud Merle’s woodwind. The mellow progressions of ‘Come From Far’ are interspersed with rapid-fire passages of rap which invoke a London charm reminiscent of Kate Nash or Natty. Singing in each of Silva’s three languages seems to bring its own unique musical persona to this eclectic record. Due to the composer’s very nomadic upbringing, the songs on this album, written largely during the confinement, sound like a surrogate for the open road to which she was surely accustomed.