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La Serena

by Yja

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about

Renowned musicians Ana Silvera (vocals) and Francesca Ter-Berg (cello) join forces to form Yja, a new project exploring and re-inventing Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) song.

Fusing the traditional music of Ana’s forebears with quirky, contemporary elements, Yja weave an intense, emotive spell. Expect to hear melismatic vocals, magical strings, guitars, loops, and songs about love, exile, yearning, mother-in-laws and psychedelic milk oceans.

PRESS

"Yja’s music is is captivating…from first listen, beware. Maybe its the intensity of Ana’s voice and Francesca’s cello which enwraps you, maybe its the sound of a traditional music they explore and renew that touches roots deep within us all , maybe its the mediterranean dream state that the Ladino songs seem to source. This is a music of enchantment , a music that is rich and strange, a music to embrace" - Max Reinhardt, Soho Radio.

"Music that stretches back and beyond, stepping into the far past and the future, speaking to ancestors and descendants [...] This mystery inspires these two creative performers to sew these rare collected songs, new clothes" - Jude Cowan Montague, Resonance FM

"Silvera's voice…gritty and fragile one minute, warm, rich and ripe the next" - Arts Desk

"Ter-Bergs vocals have a cool charm [whilst her] cello passionately laments” ​- Clive Bell, The Wire.

lyrics

En la mar hay una torre
En la torre una ventana
En la ventana hay una hija
Ke a los marineros yama

Dame la mano palomba
Para subir a tu nido
Maldicha ke durmes sola
Vengo a durmir contigo.

Si la mar era de leche,
Yo m' aría un pishkador.
Peshkaría las mis dolores
Kon palavrikas d'amor.

Si la mar era de leche,
Los barkitos de kanela,
Yo me mancharía 'ntera
Por salvar la mi bandiera.

//

In the sea, there is a tower
In the tower, there is a window
In the window, there is a girl
Whom all the fisherman adore

Give me your hand, my dove
So I can come up to your nest
Unlucky that you sleep alone
I am coming to sleep with you

If the sea was made of milk,
I'd become a fisherman,
I'd fish for my pain,
With little words of love.

If the sea was made of milk,
In the little cinnamon boats,
I'd drench myself entirely,
To save my flag.

credits

released April 21, 2020
Voice: Ana Silvera
Electric Guitar: Ana Silvera
Cello: Francesca Ter-Berg
Vocal FX: Ana Silvera
Double Bass: Jasper Hoiby
Percussion & Drums: Chris Vatalaro
Electronics: Francesca Ter-Berg & Ana Silvera

Recorded at St Lukes Church, Holloway London & Lighthouse Studio, Margate.
Engineered by Gareth Finnegan & Rick Leigh
Mastered by Peter Beckmann

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Yja London, UK

Francesca Ter-Berg is a multi-disciplinary artist. Known for her unique cello playing style, she is a specialist in Klezmer music, a songwriter, composer, ethnographer and improviser.

Ana Silvera is a London-born singer-songwriter and composer whose folk and bluegrass-tinged tunes are lyrical, intimate and emotive, works of ‘lavish, vivid imagination’ (Metro).
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