Lula Pena - Archivo Pittoresco

The Guardian 60

(Crammed Discs)

Lula Pena is a Portuguese singer and guitarist with a highly individual take on fado (or phado, as she calls it). She describes herself as an “existential musician”, releases few albums (this is her third since 1998), and says her approach to music is “wandering borderless and intuitively through different languages and sounds”. Don’t let that put you off. She constantly changes styles as she segues between her own work and settings for Brazilian poetry or material from Greece, Sardinia or Mexico, but this is an intriguing, accessible set. The musical influences include flamenco, chanson and blues, and along with her own atmospheric, drifting songs and guitar work there is a finely performed and suitably pained treatment of Ausencia, by the Chilean singer Violeta Parra. And the finale of Come Wander With Me, from The Twilight Zone, fits in perfectly with her inventive style.