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.
Too Much Light
Lucrecia Dalt Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And who took all the noise
Where's all the weight I'd felt
There's too much light in here
Could you change it?
And change me?
And change this?
Could you?
Where has all gone
And who took all the noise
Where's all the weight I'd felt
There's too much light in here
Could you change it?
And change me?
And change this?
I'd like to enjoy my pains a while more
Could you?
Lucrecia Dalt’s song Too Much Light is a poignant reflection on the fleeting nature of emotions and experiences. The song opens with a nostalgic question, “Where has all gone/And who took all the noise?”, suggesting a lost sense of vibrancy and vitality. The artist then questions the absence of weight and significance that once colored her experiences by lamenting, “Where’s all the weight I’d felt?”
Dalt is also careful to critique the excess of light in the present moment, as the listener is moved to consider the possibility that there is such a thing as too much light when it comes to matters of the heart. The repeated question of, “Could you change it?/And change me?/And change this?” suggests a willingness to move towards a rebirth, acknowledging that for things to change, some form of transformation is necessary.
The song closes with a haunting request of “I’d like to enjoy my pains a while more/Could you?” which might be interpreted as an acknowledgement of the ephemeral nature of all sensations as well as a desire to remain connected to these sensations nonetheless. Dalt’s lyrics invite the listener to reflect on their own relationship with change, growth, and the ongoing passage of time.
Line by Line Meaning
Where has all gone
I am feeling lost and directionless, as if everything that once had significance in my life has vanished and I am adrift.
And who took all the noise
The silence around me is oppressive, deafening even, and I wonder where all the sound and activity that once surrounded me has gone.
Where's all the weight I'd felt
I used to feel grounded, as if there was a weight to my existence that gave me purpose and stability. Now, that weight has disappeared and I feel unmoored.
There's too much light in here
The brightness of my surroundings feels overwhelming, as if every flaw and crevice of my being is exposed for all to see.
Could you change it?
I am asking for someone to help me transform my environment or circumstances so that I can feel more comfortable and less exposed.
And change me?
In addition to changing my external environment, I am also open to personal transformation in order to better cope with my current situation.
And change this?
As much as I would like to avoid it, I recognize that changes need to be made both internally and externally in order to move beyond my current sense of discomfort and unease.
I'd like to enjoy my pains a while more
Despite my desire for change, there is a part of me that is hesitant to let go of the pain I am experiencing. There is something familiar and even therapeutic about it that I am not ready to give up just yet.
Could you?
I am asking for help and support, recognizing that I cannot go through this alone and that I need the assistance of others to enact the changes I seek.
Writer(s): Lucrecia Dalt
Contributed by Nicholas E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Nicos Castro
hay que tener esa atención, esa de persuadir la distracción de la emoción, pero crea esa concentración que invita a cerrar a los ojos, y sentir, la movida de tu cabeza al percibir esta inocente movida... melodía...