CARLA

The Catalan synth-pop artist CARLA gave us a glimpse in her mini-LP Reflection (2020) that she was in full research and experimentation mode trying out new styles.

ECLIPSE (2024), CARLA’s new album, is the next step in the process. This is an ambitious album in the way that it pushes the bounds of electronic pop and also in the way that it challenges Carla herself to explore her possibilities as the great singer that she is. In ECLIPSE the sound palette is more varied and more electronic without losing the usual trademark addictive warmth. Evolving into it’s own synth-pop sound, the album has moments that are a lot more clubber and dancehall vibes, without ignoring dream pop, with dark undertones, urban-pop or mainstream-pop.

ECLIPSE is also a conceptual album. The eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when one astronomical object temporarily obscures another. For Serrat, this is the perfect metaphor to explain the relationship between two bodies that orbit between light and dark, between confusion and clarity.

The collaboration between the singer and the London-based Guinean percussionist Falle Nioke stands out in ECLIPSE. Nioke is one half of the project N’Dekho together with Joe Goddard (Hot Chip).

CARLA, who has worked with engineer John Davis (Gorillaz, Dua Lipa, Lana Del Rey) on previous albums, has been working now with Jolly Damper as producer, Miquel Cuxart as mixer, and the Grammy award winner Alex Ferrer (Jamie xx, John Talabot, C Tangana) as mastering.