De Todas Las Flores＜完全生産限定盤＞

メキシコを代表するシンガー・ソングライター=Natalia Lafourcade(ナタリア・ラフォルカデ)
2022年発売 グラミー賞受賞作品『De Todas las Flores』(アナログ盤)

メキシコを代表するシンガー・ソングライター=Natalia Lafourcade(ナタリア・ラフォルカデ)。音楽家の両親を持ち、幼少期にピアニストの母親が考案した子供向け音楽教育法受け育つ。2002年公開映画『アマール・テ・ドゥエレ(愛することの痛み)』の挿入歌として使用された「En El 2000」が大ヒット。同年発売されたデビューアルバム『Natalia Lafourcade』にも収録された。2005年セカンド・アルバム『Casa』以降は、バンド名義「Natalia y La Forquetina」でも活動するようになり、2006年には、ラテン・グラミー賞にて「最優秀グループ・ロック・アルバム部門」受賞。2015年に発売したアルバム『Hasta la Raiz』では、グラミー賞にて「最優秀ラテン・ロック、アーバン、オルタナティヴ・アルバム賞」を受賞する等、輝かしい経歴を持つ。

2022年に制作された本作『De Todas las Flores』は、前作『Hasta la Raiz』より約7年ぶりとなるオリジナル作品。共同プロデューサーに、映画『エル・トポ』で知られるアレハンドロ・ホドロフスキー監督の息子、アダン・ホドロフスキーを迎え、セッション・ミュージシャンにはマーク・リボー(トム・ウェイツ、エルヴィス・コステロ)等が参加。メキシコのベラクルス州とアメリカのテキサス州にてアナログ・テープによるライヴ・レコーディングを行い、パリでミックスされ制作された。彼女は本作を、失恋、喪失、悲しみをテーマにした「音楽日記」だと語る。2024年のグラミー賞にて「最優秀ラテン・ロック、アーバン、オルタナティヴ・アルバム賞」を受賞した。

Though her presence on recordings and on concert stages has been nearly ubiquitous, its remarkable to note that De Todas las Flores is Natalia Lafourcades first album of original material since 2015s Grammy-winning Hasta la Raiz. It was born from romantic heartbreak in 2018. During the healing process, she kept lyric fragments and melodic sketches on her phone. When it was time to record, she was surprised to discover it contained 20 ideas, many worth exploring. She enlisted old friend Adan Jodorowsky (scion of filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky) as co-producer. Together they invited guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and French percussionist Cyril Atef, as well as 20-year-old pianist/arranger Emiliano Dorantes as music director. They recorded live to analog tape at Sonic Ranch in Tornillo, Texas, while strings, choirs, brass, and reeds were recorded in Veracruz, Mexico. The first 90 seconds of "Vine Solita" is introduced by chamber strings in overture style. Lafourcade enters with her nylon guitar. She sings with a reedy, barely restrained passion as sparse piano, brushed cymbals, and Ribots electric guitar underscore her lines. The title cut commences with her guitar playing bossa, as bass percussion falls in alongside her. She sings to an absent lover about memories, laughter, lovemaking, and pain. Ribot adds a bolero tinge as the tempo increases, but in a simmer, highlighting the poignant poetry in Lafourcades devastating lyrics. A few tracks later, "El Lugar Correcto" emerges as a lush, jazzy romantico with sweeping strings. Her protagonist apologizes for being absent, saying only that she had to return to herself before encountering another. "Maria la Curandera" is adapted from a poem by Maria Sabina. Its musical signature embraces Cuban danzon and Mexican cumbia, with insistent organic percussion (some played on the wooden body of the double bass), strings, mariachi horns, a dramatic backing chorus, and Ribots canny, skronky guitar playing. "Caminar Bonito," another bossa-tinged ballad, is a love song offered in the present tense with gorgeous strings that hover above the band. "Mi Manera de Querer" weds Latin jazz, samba, and son in a horn- and percussion-driven paean to love itself. "Muerte" is one of two songs based on poems by David Aguilar. Its intricate arrangement melds uptempo son Mexicana and flamenco with Cuban piano montunos, dissonant saxes, and woolly guitar as Lafourcade jauntily delivers a hymn of gratitude to death (emotional, physical, and psychological) for teaching her protagonist to live in the moment. "Canta la Arena," the other poem by Aguilar, is outfitted as a mutant cha-cha, with staggered brass, reeds, pianos, and guitars, as bass and percussion create a nearly funky backbeat. The live-in-studio presentation on De Todas las Flores really works. One can feel the physical presence of the musicians; throughout, they play with exquisite taste, emotion, and adventure. Lafourcades singing is warm, immediate, intimate, and commanding. This album may have been born from heartbreak, but it resonates with acceptance, conviction, and triumph. ~ Thom Jurek