Ela

Brazilian born cellist & vocalist, Dom La Nena's debut album, Ela, is a stunningly subtle and beautifully understated journey through, in her words, ‘childhood and nostalgia.’ The thirteen songs feature her delicate voice and cello, supported by minimalist arrangements by co-producer, Piers Faccini and Dom featuring interweaving layers of piano, guitars, harmonium, kora, xylophones, backing vocals as well as the inventive multi tracking of Dom’s cello. After returning from an international tour performing with English actress and singer Jane Birkin, Dom, who has also accompanied French stars, Jeanne Moreau, Camille and Etienne Daho set about recording her first solo album in noted singer songwriter (and Six Degrees Records label-mate) Piers Faccini's studio in the Cevennes Mountains in France. In the words of Piers who accompanied her every step in the making of this album. “Dom’s songs have something very tender and emotional about them and a naivety and fragility that are accompanied by an astonishing maturity for her age. This combination of doubt and authority are part of what makes up her unique charm and talent. Dom La Nena was raised and reared on an eclectic diet of Chico Buarque, Jobim, Novos Bahianos, Jorge Ben, Mercedes Sosa, Silvio Rodriguez, Athaualpa Yupanqui, and later Leonard Cohen, Cat Power, French music, tango and the aforementioned classical pantheon La Nena in south American Spanish means ‘girl’ and sometimes baby or child. It’s a word that is often used as a term of endearment for a girl. For years, either at her parents home or at her grandparents in Uruguay or during her adolescence in Buenos Aires, this is what she was called. Taking this name as an artist is without doubt a kind of homage to the environment in which Dom grew up. It is also a poetic way of her saying, “This is me but it’s not really me’.