Namena Lala, the solo project of Natalia Orkisz, showcased songs from her new album LALA to a packed Klub Re in Krakow on March 22.
There’s plenty to admire during this live set: innovative vocal loops build, while clever, deft digital percussive touches and subtle shades of other instrumentation add to a creative palette bursting with lyrical verve. A classically trained cellist, she has put down her bow for this project, and much of her repertoire could be categorised as joyful experimentations in building disparate sounds on top of each other, low-fi folk electronica – soulful, trip hoppy, thick with striking imagery and melodic hooks. Yet it’s her astounding falsetto vocal that is the real showstopper throughout, like a child raised by wolves, in startling elfin gasps and yelps, she gives a human voice to the unfiltered ambience of the forest.
All photos by Adelina Krupski Photography for Kraków Music and Namena Lala
Namena Lala – also the name of a Fijian volcanic islet – was decimated by Cyclone Winston in 2016, flattening all the human constructs, leaving only a wild bird reserve in its wake. A fitting metaphor for a world on the verge of environmental collapse, many songs have a sensitivity borne of the fragility of the planet and those we share it with. An urgency flows out in some of the songs as well as a profound sense of disappointment. Expectations Expired starts like the call of a witches’ coven – part Kate Bush and Agnes Obel – its ethereal incantation bemoans short attention spans in a reality boiling over with injustice – social and environmental – and our flailing impotence to mitigate it.
You should forget me as soon
As the end of this tune
I won’t have anything said against it
As surely you’re aware
This world just isn’t fair
And there’s nothing you can do to fix it
To fix it
The bewitchingly evocative Foki begins with what could be the sounds of a hammock swinging in the breeze but more than likely is a wooden boat creaking its way merrily downstream. She sings of a pristine world – Eden-like and untouched – the seals that frolic in these calm, clear waters catch the singer by surprise. Living on a planet in the throes of upheaval and change, she is comforted by the fact that some things transcend impermanence – at least she hopes that is the case.
Spokojna, że nic tu się nie zmieni
Not shy of collaborating, she is joined on stage by plenty of other artists, including bandmates from Box Anima – Tomek Idziak on guitar and Wiktor Machowski on Cajon, as well as Ukrainian composer Ira Lobanok and guitarist Dominik Plebanek. Poppy single Children of Possibilities, laments a world driven by hyper-individualism and self-interest that has lost its spiritual compass.
Eyes wide closed ..we are the only God we need
…But why the world keeps crumblin’ down?
Jak w korcu maku, another single from the new album, is a touching ode to her parents, composed around a poem penned by her father before she was born. There’s a love and longing here so real you can almost touch it. It’s a place where nostalgia, gratitude and beauty coalesce.
Natalia’s stage presence is remarkable, her charming banter pulls each member of the audience into that zone where they are mere putty in her hands – encouraging them, confiding in them, soothing them, prompting them, inviting them to submerse themselves in her kaleidoscopic audio-visual adventure, an uplifting celebration of nature’s benevolent magic. They don’t need to be asked twice.
If Namena Lala was a high-priestess preaching the word with this kind of vocal delivery, it’s a church I would sign up to in an instant. Her new album LALA is out now.
