Soledad, a Solo Project ‘Catharsis’ Review

A review of the Soledad, a Solo Project album ‘Catharsis’ - released on February 15th 2019

Soledad, a Solo Project is, as you can imagine, a solo project. Lola Damblant-Soler is behind this progressive debut ‘Catharsis’ which features a number of incredibly talented guest musicians on 3 different tracks, so despite being an admirable solo effort, Catharsis is blessed with some truly great guests.

I won’t lie, this album has been passing me by for quite a while now, although a lot of the online company I keep seem to have been deeply in love with it since its release. Despite it taking some time (mainly me not giving it a proper listen until now), I now see why. Lola’s crafted a familiar sound with some really interesting unique elements (perhaps most noticeably are the moments of fairytale-like passages and soundscapes which remind me in some places of Keor’s sophomore album ‘Petrichor’).

The album opens with the previously mentioned fantasy-sounding elements. ‘Ouverture’ seems to act as an introduction to a classic story of an innocent girl being swept off her feet by the ‘White Knight’ that she always dreamed of. I think it’s interesting though that it’s turned on its head towards the very end of this song. Lyrically we get an indication that it’s not as great as it seems, and while I don’t usually let lyrics guide my opinion of an entire album, this really set the tone for Catharsis, an album that will have twists and turns, something very evident in Catharsis’ often bipolar moments through ups and downs of light and dark.

‘White Knight’ (featuring Soumia Ghechami with a guest solo) opens quite atmospherically with the groans of guitars accompanied by a more light-hearted overlay on piano, the first of many examples I hear of light and dark contrasting in this album. ‘White Knight’ also gives us the first proper listen of Lola’s diverse vocals, as Ouverture only features talking. White Knight is generally upbeat, the guitars set the song on a reasonably unwavering tempo which really adds to how it ultimately feels like a love song (I’m pretty sure this is actually the case). It’s almost comparable to the fast beating of your heart when you’re in the beginnings of a new relationship, the song reflects this in its excitement and a quite sporadic piano solo towards the midpoint, it actually feels like someone’s heart is trying to communicate with me through flutters. And then the guitar solo (which feels like a response to the piano) feels like we’re seeing two souls bind together, until everything comes together in a lovely victorious build. It’s only at this point that the song strips itself back to show the gentle, raw emotion that is behind all this constantly-moving mass of energy. This makes the final solo and cinematic outro even more impactful and striking.

‘Dogma’ is the next chapter in this cathartic journey, starting very classically which is something I really love about the song. At heart it feels like a classical ballad, even when the vocals, guitars and drums come in and the song goes on a different path, it still feels like an operatic descent into a darker digression of the story. Lola really shows a diverse range of vocal performance here; to begin with, we get very gentle serenades, then building emotion into what sounds like someone begging and pleading alongside thrumming guitars hurling us along in Lola’s accusing vocals. There is something so genuine and emotional about these vocals, they sound so raw and passionate while being carried off effortlessly. Liam McLaughlin then features with a menacing guitar solo that is just breathtaking, it flows so well, it runs round in circles making it hard to keep up in the best way. After a majestic build and crescendo, Dogma ends the same way it came into the world; softly and gently.

Routine starts with the melancholic hum of a piano reminiscent of that from the soundtrack of 1997 game “Final Fantasy 7” (for those that don’t know, this is a huge compliment. I strongly suggest that if piano music is your thing, you check out the acoustic soundtrack). This piano is instantly rivalled by Lola’s screaming and the gothic ringing of guitars that trap you within the song, allowing no escape. This is one of those examples of a bi-polar moment in the album that makes it such a roller coaster of feelings. Routine keeps up this polar-opposite theme by moving on to triumphant and victorious sections scattered across the song as a whole, most notably the moving guitar solo towards the end.

Rotting is a personal favourite of mine, mainly because I love the combination of beautifully soft vocals and charmingly repetitive instrumentations. The strings in this track really make it feel like a daze, something which I often get from Pineapple Thief songs or even some Steven Wilson’ songs, so this song is definitely one of the greats of the album. It stands out from the rest of the songs because of how slow-paced it is (for the majority of the song that is). We get a lovely rock out moment that doesn’t lose the enchanting Egyptian strings but is instead accompanied by complimenting drums and guitar work.

Parasite feels like the end of a tragic play, the moment of realisation that a hero faces, and the further realisation of their imminent downfall. The song is really heartbreaking, you can hear the sorrow in Lola’s vocals. The original story of Dido is a foul love story, in which the Queen of Carthage falls in love with a man who is not fated to be with her. When he explains that he is leaving by the command of the gods, she goes insane and begins to hate him through her love. She ends up taking her own life through her craze, so this song really is made more powerful for me because of that. It’s also perhaps more obvious that Lola incorporates lyrics and vocals from the actual song Dido’s Lament, and it’s a really new and fresh take on the song, and the notes Lola hits here are just incredibly emotional and hard to listen to. The solo also seems like an extension to Lola’s vocals, which is really effective, the parallel between the two is really interesting and ties in really nicely.

Sun of June. We’re lead into a chilling piano riff by the gentle tones of acoustic thrumming, the piano really leads the beginning of the song, forcing you to descend into a downward spiral of regret. For different parts of Sun of June, the softer sections particularly, it feels like Lola is really bottling something up, which then makes the hard-hitting walls-of-sound so much more impactful; it really feels like a catharsis, a release of emotion. Sun of June is really fun to listen to. It explores (however briefly) so many different sounds and passages, before finding its way back to the song. I would say that while this interesting, it sometimes goes to the extent of not making sense. However, the coherent bits really are great, and the mix of suppression into release is the main selling point of the song for me.

Renaissance features French lyrics in the beginning, and I’ve always loved hearing things I can’t understand, and just feeling the emotion behind it. It’s weird, but this song reminds me of Christine Lee’s speech in the frankly abysmal show ‘Black Summer’. While the show itself is almost unwatchable towards the end, this Lee’s character (who speaks no English) delivers the most heartbreaking speech, it’s all in Korean so I can’t understand any of it, but I feel arguably more emotion from it because of that, because all I get from the speech isn’t the meaning of the words, but the execution of them. Renaissance does this for me, it’s almost like I can understand the words despite having no idea what they mean, I can feel them. While being primarily a ballad, things do become a bit heavier for a minute before the end. I actually wish this didn’t happen. I know it wouldn’t be the same song and it wouldn’t have the same meaning, but I feel like this idea of being very soft and ballad-like before coming in quite suddenly and heavily is overused in general, and maybe used a little too much in this album.

Indigo is a TITAN of a song. Coming in at just over 25 minutes, we get a really strong start with a nasty bass solo amidst whispering guitars. The beginning very much reminds me of a lot of prog-epics (in a good way) - Octavarium for example, starts very atmospherically and slowly, like the introduction to the final chapter, and then BOOM a massive slap in the face drags you into the song head first. Even though we’ve all heard this kind of intro done before, to me it’s timeless and I’m a sucker for that kind of thing, really strong start for this Indigo. After really ‘starting up’ we’re taken alongside quite a majestic and reasonably upbeat passage, uplifting and hopeful. Lola again begins with French vocals, an instant bonus in my eyes (mainly because it seems so much more poetic and musical). Indigo visits almost all areas that the album has been, heavy riffs, soft and gentle moments, accusing vocals, some great solos (one by the amazing Lucas de la Rosa), and perhaps most importantly, a feeling of Catharsis. Indigo definitely deserves more attention, and so does the whole Catharsis album, so make sure you check it out and show Lola some support!

Overall, I think I really missed out in not hearing this album sooner. Not all of it is my kind of thing, but there are some great moments and really enjoyable songs here and it's an incredible debut for Soledad, a Solo Project. 7/10. Go give it a listen and let me know what you think!

- James Carstairs