Mariana Montalvo, like the singer/songwriter Victor Jara, was part of the Nueva Cancion movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Like so many of her contemporaries, she left Chile when the Pinochet dictatorship took over, settling in Paris where a smoky ballad style already had an influence on her vocal style.

Mix the serious social conscience of the Nueva Cancion with the style of Paris made famous by Edith Piaf and others, and you get a type of singing and songwriting totally unsuitable for dancing or raucous behavior - hence my love for the rousing title cut.

Mariana Montalvo has a medium-range voice, usually soft and almost but not quite delicate: similar to Brazil's Astrud Gilberto, mixed with Argentina's Mercedes Sosa and of course many famous Parisian singers.

The arrangements on PIEL DE ACEILUNA  are varied, although usually somewhat sparse. I particularly enjoyed the occasional interplay with the other vocalists (one at a time, not in chorus).

The entire cd was recorded in Paris and the Paris Cafe style meets South America on most cuts.

Mariana Montalvo is on tour in the USA this fall as part of 'Putumayo Presents Latinas: Women of Latin America'.