Carola Ortiz - Pecata Beata (2021)

Pecata Beata’ (Segell Microscopi, 2021) is the third album as a composer [and producer] of the gifted singer and clarinettist Carola Ortiz. In this new work, the Catalan artist brings poems by Catalan female writers such as Montserrat Abelló, Mercè Rodoreda, Víctor Català and Anna Gual, in celebration of the feminine universe of her origins.
It’s an album that addresses topics like sensuality and the attractiveness of women, Mediterranean feminine mythology, witches and mermaids, and at the same time, through the metaphor of art, wants to serve as a cure for the dark past lived by some of her ancestors. It faces issues such as exile, fear of abuse, loneliness and despair and the metaphysical inheritance received by the modern day woman.
Carola Ortiz has carefully composed a personal work that consolidates and redefines her identity, rooted in musical tradition and her native land. This is her first album sung entirely in Catalan (her mother tongue), where she returns and delves into her own culture, after having formerly explored artistic expression in music from other cultures and having chanted in more than ten different languages, in a career, until now, marked by travel and diverse musical genres. Pecata Beata is an album of Mediterranean melodies, chamber music instrumentation, folk percussion and the rhythmic and harmonic features of jazz.

THE SONGS AND POEMS
On the album appear pieces such as 'Corro per la Nit'; a poem by Anna Gual, in which the poet describes a nocturnal persecution and the imaginary fear incited by its danger, an atmosphere and anguish that Carola Ortiz has managed to reflect through usage of the power of the Balkan sound. We also highlight the adaptation of the tragic story between mother and daughter present in the traditional melody ‘El Testament d’Amèlia’, to the rhythm of Bulería with a jazzy twist. 'Avui les Fades i les Bruixes s'estimen', by Maria Mercè Marçal, in the ‘Clave de Bulería’ with a contemporary arrangement of a string quartet, embroidered by the North American composer and veteran John King, and the percussion, jars and tambourines, of Aleix Tobias. The 'Cant de Juliol' by the writer Catarina Albert, with the pseudonym Víctor Català, which transmits a humorous and cabaret air. Mercè Rodoreda's ‘Sirena’, which could be reminiscent of a traditional Habanera or tango melody, and is also the only song that features the seven musicians together, who have collaborated on the album. ‘Carmeta’, an instrumental piece that bears the maiden name of Carola's grandmother from Barcelona. And 'Ala, Bat! Yes, Adeu’ a compilation of verses by the poet Rosa Pou, a friend of the composer, that Carola presents in the form of Fado.

Tracklist:
1 01. Carola Ortiz - Corro Per la Nit (04:12)
1 02. Carola Ortiz - El Testament D'Amèlia (04:44)
1 03. Carola Ortiz - Sirena (04:24)
1 04. Carola Ortiz - Visc Per No Morir - L'exiliada (03:55)
1 05. Carola Ortiz - Ala, Bat! Sí, Adeu (04:33)
1 06. Carola Ortiz - Amat I Amic (02:55)
1 07. Carola Ortiz - Avui Les Fades I Les Bruixes S'estimen (02:55)
1 08. Carola Ortiz - Cant de Juliol (02:24)
1 09. Carola Ortiz - Carmeta (03:12)
1 10. Carola Ortiz - La Rosa Als Llavis (04:22)