Saved Album: hortelã by MARO 🇵🇹

As I sit here listening to hortelã with my morning coffee, I realize that I’ve missed all the dates of MARO’s Trio Tour and the chance to hear her perform live with guitarists Darío Barroso and Pau Figueres; this better not be the last Trio Tour. You know those albums where every song is better than the last? Yeah, this is one of them.

As the album cover suggests, hortelã is an intimate, stripped down record that allows MARO’s unique voice to shine. Despite its acoustic nature, classically trained guitarist Darío Barroso and flamenco guitarist Pau Figueres make sure that the sound is anything but thin. Their intricate melodic and harmonic lines act as the backing vocals while the percussion comes in the form of muted strumming, rasgueados and golpes. The duo creates the perfect base upon which MARO’s voice, warm and deep but airy at the same time, floats overtop like a musical whisper.

Something about the quality of MARO’s voice just makes it perfect for an acoustic record. Its sweet, delicate timbre and slight breathiness produce the ethereal atmosphere that marks all ten tracks of the album. Starting with “oxalá”, one of the more upbeat offerings, you can immediately hear how masterfully the two guitars weave their parts together to complement MARO’s vocals. As we continue down the setlist, past the melancholic “fui passo calculado” and “just want to forget you”, all the emotion culminates in “juro que vi flores“, featuring Sílvia Pérez Cruz. If MARO’s voice is a sweet whisper, I would describe Sílvia’s as a cry or llanto (it just sounds better in Spanish). Her emotion is absolutely palpable as her voice soars over everyone else, and although there are many goosebump-inducing moments throughout the album, “juro que vi flores” never fails to get me.

The album ends with its namesake “hortelã“, which is a love song that MARO dedicates to her family, and is as warm and soothing as a cup of mint tea. It’s a beautiful ending to one of the best albums I’ve ever listened to—a perfect collaboration between three talented artists. It accompanied my slow mornings, rainy afternoons and late night existential contemplations, making it one of my top albums in 2023.