Spanish singer Rossell is a chanteuse in the grand, emotive style of Edith Piaf.
On Cap a Cel, she takes eleven Catalan songs of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries
and makes them her own, with intensely personal interpretations and fresh, contemporary arrangements.
Rossell has a richly textured voice that’s just packed with honest passion.
Her backup musicians, on piano, acoustic and electric guitars, accordion, percussion and other instruments, provide a subtle, supportive backdrop that allows her voice and the poetry of the songs to shine through.
«Mare de Deu del Món (Mother of God of the World)» gets a chugging cabaret treatment, complete with oom-pah accordion, which seems incongruous to its lyrics, but works beautifully.
She reprises it in the bonus track in a slightly thinned out but equally effective version.
The deceptively cheery «Els contrabandists (The smugglers)» is a story of treachery and bloodshed.
«Cant Espiritual (Spiritual)» is a moody musing on faith, beauty, fear, and death.
