Lucrecia Dalt was born in Pereira, Colombia in 1980. She studied civil engineering and worked for two years in a geotechnical company in Medellin before deciding to pursue music.
Her first recordings were released by Columbian collective Series under the name Lucrecia. After meeting Gudrun Gut, she contributed four songs to the 4 Women No Cry compilation released on Monika Enterprise in 2008.
After moving to Europe she released a series of recordings, including a release on Nicolás Jaar's Other People imprint and a series of collaborations with Aaron Dilloway. Among her more recent releases are the albums Anticlines (2018) and No Era Sólida (2020) on RVNG Intl.
Like the whirr of a wake-up call, Lucrecia Dalt’s metallic compositions entice us to rethink the possibilities of materiality and existence. The Colombian musician and sound artist has carved out a place at the contemporary frontiers of avant-garde and electronic music, hardware in hand, to channel age-old questions into a distinct and transgressive musical language.
Perhaps the ability to dig a little deeper is hard-wired into Dalt’s creative process through her background as a geotechnical engineer. Now residing in Berlin, Dalt often seeks inspiration in the worlds of fiction, poetry, geology and desire, excavating nuanced references to untangle and respond to in her music. At times, this exploratory impulse surfaces like an introspective call and response experiment with her source material, forming new perspectives on ideas rooted in Colombian mythology to German New Wave cinema. Dalt’s conceptual blueprints are intimate and intricate, emerging like cyanotypes cast in the sun. Around these frameworks she shapes her sound, using analogue instrumentation, a vast array of synthesizers and the processed glow of her voice.
Dalt joined the RVNG family in 2018 with the release of Anticlines. Interspersed with enigmatic metaphors, the record channels at its core the principle of tectonic plates compressing stratified rock: old material is pushed to the centre and sometimes becomes exposed. Guided by this concern with boundaries and edges, Dalt reframes traditional Latin American rhythms beside visceral tones of electronic composition and fragmented spoken word, tracing new contours in the topography of human consciousness. The poetic lyrics of Anticlines were written collaboratively between Dalt and artist Henry Andersen, and the accompanying artwork was realised by visual artist and ongoing collaborator Regina de Miguel.
With the release of Dalt’s seventh album No era sólida (2020), another world is located in her universe. In an embrace of introspection, Dalt sets out to capture the moment when one becomes pure sound. This transcendent process of creation summons Lia: an apparition of the artist as possessed by mimetic impulses. Language is dissolved into an evocative collection of glossolalia as the record swells with rhythmic tremors and the lunar echoes of a lawless organism tethered to sonic hardware. Navigating through each song as a different state experienced by Lia, the album closes with spoken word reflections on the existence of an unworldly lifeform seeded through sound.
Her sound work has been presented internationally in spaces such as Issue Project Room, Pioneer Works in New York, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Museum of Modern Artin Medellín, the Mies van der Rohe pavilion in Barcelona, the New South Walles art gallery in Sydney, among others.
Ceniza
Lucrecia Dalt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Mientras atraviesa la ciudad hasta la casa
No puede olvidar los edificios y la calma, cayendo
Y sentía que su corazon iba subiendo, a explotar
Sólo espero que esté bien en medio del desastre
Y que no se descontrole mas
Sólo quiere llegar pronto y que todos estén bien
The lyrics to Lucrecia Dalt's song "Ceniza" tell the story of a person who is traveling through a city that is starting to fall apart. As they make their way to their home, they can't help but notice the buildings and the calmness around them begin to crumble. As this person's heart starts to race, they fear that everything is going to fall apart. However, they hold on to the hope that everyone will be okay, and they will arrive safely to reunite with their loved ones.
The song seems to be an ode to the fragility of life and how quickly our world can fall apart. It's a reminder that no matter how stable we think our lives are, anything can happen, and we need to be prepared. Through her storytelling and vocal performance, Lucrecia Dalt conveys a sense of anxiety and concern, reminding us that life is a precious gift that should be treasured.
Line by Line Meaning
Y todo parece que se va a desintegrar ahí
Everything seems to be falling apart right there.
Mientras atraviesa la ciudad hasta la casa
While she crosses the city to get home.
No puede olvidar los edificios y la calma, cayendo
She cannot forget the buildings and the calm, falling apart.
Y sentía que su corazon iba subiendo, a explotar
She felt her heart rising, about to burst.
Sólo espero que esté bien en medio del desastre
I just hope she's okay in the midst of the disaster.
Y que no se descontrole mas
And that it doesn't get any more out of control.
Sólo quiere llegar pronto y que todos estén bien
She just wants to arrive quickly and for everyone to be okay.
Todos bien
Everyone okay.
Writer(s): Maria Lucrecia Perez Lopez
Contributed by Jeremiah Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.