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I am shocked and deeply saddened by the news of Lhasa’s recent death to breast cancer. Lhasa de Sela was one of my favorite singers, someone with so much to say, who sung with such grace and sensitivity and whose music seemed to always come from deep within. She was only 37 years old and passed away before midnight on new year’s day, after battling breast cancer for 20 months.


I recently met Lhasa when Charlie Gillett interviewed her for his BBC radio show. I didnt realize then why she had such short hair and seemed tired. Nor when I first listened to her last album, self-titled “Lhasa”, which departed from the previous two in how melancholic and introspective it was, laden with images of parting, the unknown and death. What did strike me however, upon first listening (apart from how immediately and deeply struck I was by it), is how much she stood out from many other contemporary artists.


Each of her 3 albums has shown her evolution as an artist; as someone who followed and carved out her own musical journey. I felt so refreshed to discover that her third album was as powerful and beautiful as the previous two and yet charted new territory. It felt like the creation of it was done outside the context of the contemporary folk, fusion or indie music scene, with their trends, production style and time-line. And instead inside her own rich musical world, with its own references. For example, “Lhasa” was recorded entirely in analog, a practice few if any artists do in the current age of digital recording. It took her 5 years to release her second album “the Living Road”, and it another 6 after that to release “Lhasa” in 2009. She was an artist who really was “going in” and who brought us the fruits of that journey. She was an artist whose journey I believed in and was excited about. A rare and wonderful thing.


And now we have lost her. But her music will stay with us, all the more haunting.


The lyrics from “I’m Going In” from her last album:


When my lifetime had just ended
And my death had just begun
I told you I’d never leave you
But I knew this day would come


Give me blood for my blood wedding
I am ready to be born
I feel new
As if this body were the first I’d ever worn


I need straw for the straw fire
I need hard earth for the plow
Don’t ask me to reconsider
I am ready to go now


I’m going in I’m going in
This is how it starts
I can see in so far
But afterwards we always forget
Who we are


I’m going in I’m going in
I can stand the pain
And the blinding heat
‘Cause I won’t remember you
The next time we meet


You’ll be making the arrangements
You’ll be trying to set me free
Not a moment for the meeting
I’ll be busy as a bee


You’ll be talking to me
But I just won’t understand
I’ll be falling by the wayside
You’ll be holding out your hand


Don’t you tempt me with perfection
I have other things to do
I didn’t burrow this far in
Just to come right back to you


I’m going in I’m going in
I have never been so ugly
I have never been so slow
These prison walls get closer now
The further in I go


I’m going in I’m going in
I like to see you from a distance
And just barely believe
And think that
Even lost and blind
I still invented love


I’m going in
I’m going in
I’m going in


- Lhasa de Sela


Listen to “I’m Going In” on youtube


23 March 2010


I’ve just added our first museradio.fm podcast in tribute to Lhasa de Sela and Charlie Gillett, who both passed this year.


You can listen here: Lhasa de Sela music tribute


In this podcast, I’ve featured some of my favorite Lhasa songs, including De Cara a la Pared, Con Toda Palabra and I’m Going In. I also discovered some songs where she featured on other artists’ albums, including Patrick Watson’s album Wooden Arms, a moody, experimental ambient indie pop album with lots of chimes, guitar, piano and a high pitched voice slightly reminiscent of Antony & The Johnsons. The track, Wooden Arms featuring Lhasa, and track 5 on the museradio.fm Lhasa podcast, is my favorite on the album however.