Public Servant Lifestyle

The second UK album release this year from the intriguing artist Word magazine called “[an] immaculate Latin sundowner”, out now, on Domino.

Tres Cosas by Juana Molina

Former Argentine TV comic Juana Molina shuns the laugh track in favour of tunes that invite the listener into a sublime South American sound world of 'deep song' (cante hondo.)

Hailing from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Juana Molina is an extraordinary singer, accomplished songwriter and producer. Formerly a celebrated stand up comic, with her own successful Argentine television sketch show - Juana and Her Sisters - she has now turned her back on a not inconsiderable celebrity to return to her first love: music.

Her second album, Segundo, was the first to be heard outside her home country. The impact has been impressive. In the US show business bible, Entertainment Weekly, named Segundo it’s ‘Best World Music Album’ of 2003. After touring the ‘States in the spring - culminating in an appearance at the Coachella Festival and a solo show in New York that received an excellent notice in the New York Times – former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne personally invited her to open for his huge US summer tour.

"...a kind of Latino analogue bubble bath. A unique and brilliant record” - DJ Magazine 4.5/5

Shortly after doing just that, Juana headlined to a rapt audience at Barcelona’s SONAR festival for the final day. In the UK, BBC Radio One’s Breezeblock and One World programs both broadcasted huge chunks of her set and the Daily Telegraph described her as “a musician and singer of often mesmerizing power”.

Droney Melodies

Juana now follows these triumphs with a new album, Tres Cosas (Three Things). Like Segundo before it, the new long-player was written, recorded, played, produced and mixed entirely by Juana, working on her own at home - with just a few additional keyboards and vocals provided later by Alejandro Franov. Easily as riveting as Segundo, Tres Cosas is (arguably) the stronger of the two albums, with the songwriting seemingly both more bold and more boldly realised. As the New York Times put it: “Her strengths - guitar playing and plain-spoken, droney melodies - are in the foreground. The songs have become prettier, with fewer keyboard distractions”.

“After two years of working on Segundo – a record based on songs with a lot of layers of sounds – I had the need to make a more simple record, only based on guitar and vocals,” Juana explains. “The fact I recorded less instruments and there are less arrangements makes the record sound more crystalline, transparent, brighter than Segundo. Harmony is defined with the guitar and vocals. I wanted to get back to the essential: a molecule of me.”

“quiet and intimate, each song like a thought that has been brooded on and polished by constant caresses of introspection…It’s the quiet ones you have to watch” - The Wire

Juana’s personal history is as compelling as her distinct sound. “My father (the noted tango player Horacio Molina) taught me to play guitar when I was five and I’ve been in a musical ambience all my life. One summer we lived in the same house with - bossa nova legends - Vinicius de Moraes, Toquinho and Chico Buarque; my father played with them and they were always improvising songs to cheer up the kids. When a military coup d’etat seized the country our family fled to Paris. We lived there for six years and came back to Argentina when democracy was restored.”

“her haunting post-everything music sends shivers up my spine… lovely” 7.5/10 - Vice

Buenos Aires

As a teenager in Buenos Aires, Juana became a singer in various bands, but feeling like she needed to brush up her guitar playing, she sought employment to raise money for lessons. A curious twist of fate saw Juana working as a bit-part comedian on television. Before long, she was a star with her own show which became a hit in the rest of the Spanish-speaking world. She earned a reputation as the most acclaimed television comedian in Argentina. Her stellar comedic career meant her musical aspirations lay dormant for seven years.

“an angelic voice and beautiful line in heady down tempo, Segundo is pretty wondrous” 4/5 - Mixmag

Realising how far from her original goal she now was, Juana started working on her first album Rara. She moved to Los Angeles in 1998 and started all over again, playing gigs in local clubs. At this time she started work on Segundo - released in Argentina back in December of 2000), released in the UK in 2004. Juana Molina now lives in Buenos Aires, with her husband and daughter.

The full track listing for Tres Cosas looks like this:

1. No es tan cierto
2. El cristal
3. Sálvese quién pueda
4. ¡Uh!
5. Tres Cosas
6. Yo sé que
7. Isabel
8. Lamba corta
9. Sólo su voz
10. Cúrame
11. Filter taps
12. El progresso
13. Insensible

Tres Cosas by Juana Molina is available now, as a CD and gatefold double vinyl album. Segundo is also available as a CD and gatefold double LP, both from the Domino Recording Company.

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