Blessed with one of the purest and prettiest voices, Luciana Souza has created a catalogue ranging from Brazilian folk to West Coast Cool, with stops at poetry and modern musings in between. This time around, she sticks to singing in English, and while she still has a dash of Joni Mitchell to her tone, her sound is all her own, and it’s an excellent sound.
Producer Larry Klein adroitly puts her in her best milieu, which is spartan in support, featuring Chico Pinheiro/g, Scott Colley/b and lots of space and reflection. Souza eschews material from other artists this time around as well, composing all of the material, and it gives hints to the poetry of her Neruda album with its emphasis on daydreaming and thoughtful meditations.
Colley and Pinheiro team up with Souza’s percussion to create pulses that sometimes create deep and created rivulets or sparkling stars of night sounds on pieces such as “Daybreak,” Tonight” and “Night Song.” Souza can stretch a lyric like salt water taffy while adding just a bubble of vibrato on ”We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” and can weave a monologue to music like few others as on “A Life.” Poetic, cerebral and still retaining pastoral musicality. One of her best, and that’s saying something.