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JUANA MOLINA ****
Tres Cosas 
Domino

Your past never completely disappears, as Argentinian Juana Molina is finding out as her seven-year gig as a successful TV host and comedienne in the 1990s returns to hog the backstory. Like her 2000 Segundo album (released on Domino in Europe earlier this year), Tres Cosas exudes sultry, slow-motion sweetness, hypnotic gossamer folk and understated emotional resonance. Unlike its predecessor, the emphasis here is on streamlining the sound, Molina stripping each track back to its bare bones and only allowing the sparest of sounds to splash through the net. While this minimalist process does have the potential to produce austere and stark results, Molina hits melodic pay-dirt time and again, with tracks such as Salvese quien pueda and Solo su voz showing unexpected bossa-nova roots. Molina, it seems, hasn't lost her instinct for timing. www.dominorecordco.com