- Connecting the history of women's lament with contemporary music practice.
- Ramona Gonzalez has described her work as Nite Jewel as the expressions of an "aspirational-reluctant diva." While her early synth pop productions saw her catalogued alongside fellow Los Angeles DIY scene contemporaries like Julia Holter and Ariel Pink, her lyric and vocal sensibility often undermined her effervescent, day-glow productions with a malaise of loss and unfulfillment. Her new record No Sun throws this underlying disquiet into the open, and dovetails with Gonzalez's focus as a musicology researcher.
Both the record and her recently completed PhD interrogate how the historical context of the female lament, which stretches back to antiquity, is disconnected from the work of contemporary divas like Sade, Lana Del Rey and Rosalía. In conversation with Matt McDermott, Gonzalez explains the fascinating context and historical development of female musical mourning, and how both her academic and creative work intertwined in the composition of No Sun.
TracklistNite Jewel - Anymore [Gloriette Records]
Nite Jewel - When There Is No Sun [Gloriette Records]