In a time steeped in disenchantment, where fragments of innocence and compassion falter in the din, Nathalie Astrada’s voice as Lux Mala strikes a singular chord. With her raw honesty, she offers not optimism, but a stirring realism, weaving together strains of fierce individualism and reflections on pain as paradoxically liberating. Lux Mala, drawing from the Argentine myth —a spectral light haunting fields and forests—illuminates the hidden beauty amid darkness.
The Spanish-language track Catacumba plunges headlong into a world bristling with electronics, where Astrada’s expansive vocals entwine with synth-heavy soundscapes. It opens with a stark, throbbing bassline, sparse yet potent, soon joined by relentless drum beats that drive the listener into a hypnotic, dangerous dance. The song unspools a sense of suffocating entrapment, where numbness and emptiness hold sway. Words are absent, emotions stifled, as the speaker drifts into an echo of existence—an intangible, ghostly memory suspended in a realm without feeling, regret, or relief. Repetition amplifies the sense of endlessness, portraying a limbo frozen in perpetual darkness, stripped of sensation, hope, and escape.
“Catacumba reflects my thoughts of what we will become once we are dead,’ says Astrada. “It’s a reminder to live now because there is nothing we can do once we are in catacomb-like husks of our former selves.”
The video’s vision sprang from the pen and eye of Alex Garcia Mallarini, a Uruguayan filmmaker now settled in Barcelona, whose shorts have seized awards across global festivals. His direction delves into a whirlwind of human emotion—jealousy laced with love, obsession spiraling into violence. Here, a tempest brews, wrapping itself around a love triangle, where three young women are bound by fierce passion and the dark undertow it summons. Mallarini spins a tale drenched in intensity, brimming with tension and betrayal. Every frame pulses with raw energy, painting a gripping portrait of desire twisted by envy and the bitter, biting consequences that follow.
Watch the video for “Catacumba” below:
In 2022, she unveiled Lux Mala, her debut album, bringing forth three striking singles with their own videos, two of which found a home in independent film festivals like Valeiff in Valencia. Lux Mala, both vocalist and instrumentalist, has spun her sound across continents, teaming with artists from Mexico to Germany, Puerto Rico to Scotland.
Her performances lit up the Barciff (Barcelona Indie Film Festival) as well as the Barnadark Fest. Halloween saw her haunting Madrid at Dark Vampires. Anticipation builds for her second studio album, set to arrive in December 2024.
You can listen to Catacumba at the link below and order here.
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