The album REMISE EN BOUCHE, which translates as palate cleanser, or in the mouth, is both an act of refreshment for the ears, and a commentary on the misogyny women experience in the creative industries.

The titles take for inspiration structures and forms found in Classical Music, Fine Art, and Theatre/Dance. Their relationship is abstract and in some cases, signifiers of their purpose in the ensemble of the album.

The album combines field recordings, classical rifts, untrained voice, violin, toy whistle and transformed feedback noise. the layers co exist, tangle, overlap, to form a textured sonic world, full of movement, with sounds appearing and receding into dark voids.

Everything you hear in this album was generated acoustically either with instrumentation or concrete sound sources.

composition / mix / album art: Lola de la Mata

mastering: Andrew Larrabee & Lola de la Mata

release date: April 22, 2018 on Chicago based net label Pan Y Rosas Discos

REVIEWED by Richard Allen for 'a closer listen': https://acloserlisten.com/2018/05/30/the-women-of-pan-y-rosa-discos/

"Shifting gears once again, we encounter the work of London’s Lola de la Mata, an impossible to categorize artist whose work demonstrates incredible intelligence and complexity.  de la Mata’s main interest is the kinesthetic nature of the body in relation to movement and sound.  Her work has often been used in dance performances, as the nuances of her compositions lend themselves well to creative interpretations.  In Remise en Bouche (Palate Cleanser), one can hear percussive breath and snapshots of song, along with static and feedback, trains and bells, violin and voice.  The immersive track “self (portrait)” simultaneously struggles for expression and is expression,  serving as a metaphor for the album’s theme of “the misogyny women experience in the creative industries.”  Are we hearing each other, or reducing each other to fragments of sound?  “Voiceless” is the album’s most chilling piece, as a pitched-down voice intones, “I am here, I’m at your disposal,” representing the infantilizing attitude of dismissive men.  While short, the track manages to make an uncomfortable impact, reminiscent of that felt while listening to Holly Herndon’s “Lonely at the Top.”  It’s hard not to hear the ticking of “Curtain Call” as a sociopolitical bomb.  The strained choral presence of “Reveries” sounds like an elegy for innocence: a reverent pause, a gathering of strength before the telling of redacted truths."