Una linterna

The songs of Argentina’s Candelaria Zamar are pliable things, liable to shift register in unexpected ways. While there’s a pop backbone to her melody writing, and a jazz-like timbre to the singing, the eight songs on Una linterna impress for their ability to inveigle gentle avant-gardism into singer-songwriter frameworks; on “Camino,” for example, Zamar’s voice follows a tune that suggests Carole King, at times, but the chords on the piano unsettle, the arrangements layer in unexpected ways, and the song takes flight at an uncertain angle. That she keeps it in the air is a sign of Zamar’s artistry. The following “Ave Lira” brings the listener down to earth and traps them in a bejewelled music box. Listening carefully to its interface of the acoustic and the electronic, the pop and the avant, it’s no surprise that Juana Molina reissued Una linterna on her label Sonamos.