The Catalan singer-songwriter and multi-instrumenalist Lau Noah is the sort of musician who can seem uncannily self-contained — capable of conjuring vast reserves of tonal color and emotional detail with just her voice and a fingerpicked guitar. But her new album, A DOS, due out on Jan. 12, finds express purpose in duologue.
Several advance singles have already illustrated the point — duets with Jacob Collier, with Sílvia Pérez Cruz, with Jorge Drexler, with Chris Thile. Now comes a track recorded with one of our leading jazz vocalists, Cécile McLorin Salvant. Titled “Siete Lágrimas,” it has a back story that connects both artists in interesting ways.
![Catalan singer-songwriter and guitarist Lau Noah, whose album 'A DOS' consists of duets with a wide range of collaborators.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/257a564/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1200x1800+0+0/resize/880x1320!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fbc%2F9e%2F560c2b2a45bd867b7d66d2444058%2Flau-noah.jpeg)
Noah composed “Siete Lágrimas” at her home in Queens, NY in March of 2020, during the first unsettling month of COVID lockdown. Its Spanish lyrics ponder the end of a love affair from a stance of conflicted emotion. Si te vas mañana / Bajo el calor de este sol tibio, she sings, Lloraré seis lágrimas de amor / Y una de alivio. (“If you go tomorrow / Under the heat of this warm sun / I will shed six tears of love / And one of relief.”)
A couple of months after writing the song, Noah posted a video in true pandemic fashion, featuring collaborators multi-tracked in their own domiciles. She eventually featured “Siete Lágrimas” as the opening track on her 2021 album, simply titled 3.
Salvant — who also posted videos during the early stretch of lockdown, including one of the first pandemic livestreams — shares with Noah a flair for narrative tension in her music. Here is how Noah describes their meeting:
“In the beginning of 2023 I was invited to a dinner party [where] I sat next to Cécile, and we spoke about dragons and love. Afterwards, sitting by the fire we all played songs, and once I finished my turn, Cécile said out loud 'you're so weird,' which sounded like the most delightful compliment. It wasn't even two weeks later that I asked her humbly if she'd sing this song with me, and she said yes. We met at Conveyor Studios in NYC and I heard her sing in Spanish for the first time. What a treat... She is a master storyteller, and both my song and I were forever thrilled.”
Among the other guests on A DOS are the Guatemalan singer-songwriter Gaby Moreno, the Israeli jazz pianist Shai Maestro, and the Portuguese singer Salvador Sobral.
A DOS is due out on Jan. 12. Lau Noah will perform at Joe's Pub in New York, with an array of guests, on Jan. 23.