BY ANTONIA ZAPPIA
‘The Words Unsaid’
Lunae Lumen – Martha Otero
Lunae Lumen is latin for ‘Moonlight’ and is the musical namesake of Mexican pianist Martha Otero. Is it any wonder this debut EP sends me into a meditative and dream-like state when listening at 10:30 in the morning? I am listening again later in the day, for sure. My first praise has to go to Lunae’s prevalent use of viola in ‘The Words Unsaid’ – it is a wonderful EP for showcasing the purplish tones of the viola. If the viola is purple, then the piano that accompanies it is surely a wash of blue and grey. The character of this work is in a similar vein to Max Richter’s ‘On The Nature of Daylight’ a track on his 2012 album ‘The Blue Notebooks’. Every melody and harmony echoes faded passages of memory; things that were once bright and happy have now lost their sharpness and colour.
‘The Words Unsaid’ of the album’s title is the beginning of this beautiful journey tinged with melancholy. The upper register of the piano steps gently over shifting bass arpeggios and viola enters softly waling. There’s a soothing harmonic shift towards the end of the track which offers a graceful step into ‘The Places You Will Never See’. ‘Abismos De Océanos Y Firmamento’ takes the listener on a journey along rain-soaked sand dunes once beaten by turbulent waves. ‘Eclipse’ is the result of that gloomy scene transforming into a red-tinged moon on a black backdrop. Bass notes try to beat down the hopeful coos of the upper register piano and lower register strings soon add turbulence. We arrive at the last track ‘The Ghosts in Your Heart’ thankful for the opportunity to be greeted by a dream like motif that is joined by some gorgeous auxiliary percussion. The glockenspiel works wonderfully here, weaving in and out of mirroring the piano’s motives and making its own.
There are two issues I have with this debut EP. Firstly, the reverb seems as though it’s trying to mask the fact that the instruments used were either electronic, or real instruments recorded in a dry space. As Otero progresses in her writing and producing, I do hope she uses different listening environments to test the sound of the reverb used. The tempo throughout stays much the same and some variance would have been wonderful especially with writing this lovely. It is worth buying, downloading and listening to, I am wanting to hear more and see where Otero’s writing adventures to next.
Lunae Lumen is an ambient/contemporary classical solo project created by Martha Otero, a 25 year old pianist from Zacatecas, Mexico. Her main musical influences involve film scores, contemporary classical and post-rock. Listen to her music through Soundcloud or Bandcamp.
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