DONA (Catalan for “woman”) is a deeply intimate and poetic journey through the emotional and spiritual landscape of a woman’s life—told through the voice, words, and soul of singer Nadia Basurto with musicians Clemens van der Feen from the Feenbrothers band, Jesse van Ruller and Niels Meliefste. Drawing on personal experience, improvisation, Catalan and Spanish poetry, and the rich traditions of Latin jazz, art song, and folk, this collection weaves together tales of love, resilience, dreams, and memory.
The album was Produced and Recorded by Jared Sacks and DSD Mastered by Tom Caulfield from the NativeDSD Team for Just Listen Records.
At its heart, DONA is about the inner lives we carry—about growing up while still longing to dream, about facing life’s weight with grace, and about keeping the door open to wonder, even when hope feels fragile. Basurto sings of emotional entrapment and transformation, insomnia and longing, nostalgia and quiet rebellion. These are songs of becoming, of remembering, of holding on and letting go.
Musically, the album resists categorization. Jazz, milonga, folk, free improvisation, and lullaby form a fluid continuum through which the voice leads with clarity and vulnerability. Acoustic textures frame the stories with sensitivity and restraint, giving space for breath, for silence, for the listener to lean in. The improvised moments are not interludes but essential gestures—fleeting truths caught in the act of being born.
Basurto’s lyrics and vocal delivery reflect a life lived in multiple emotional registers. There is pain here, and tenderness. There is sadness, but also celebration. The recurring theme is not resolution but presence: showing up to life as it is, without filters or masks. DONA doesn’t offer easy catharsis. Instead, it invites us to inhabit complexity, to feel deeply, and to find beauty in what is unresolved.
In a time that often demands perfection, speed, and surface, DONA is an act of quiet resistance—a meditation on softness, depth, and feminine strength. It is a voice that asks us to slow down, to listen closely, and to remember the simple, radical act of feeling.
Nadia Basurto, Vocals & Arrangements
Clemens van der Feen, Bass
Jesse van Ruller, Guitar
Niels Meliefste, Marimba & Percussion
Tracklist
Please note that the below previews are loaded as 44.1 kHz / 16 bit.Total time: 00:32:14
Additional information
| Label | |
|---|---|
| SKU | JL025 |
| Qualities | DSD 512 fs, DSD 256 fs, DSD 128 fs, DSD 64 fs, DXD 32 Bit, DXD 24 Bit, FLAC 192 kHz, FLAC 96 kHz |
| Channels | |
| Artists | Clemens van der Feen, Jesse van Ruller, Nadia Basurto, Niels Meliefste |
| Composers | |
| Genres | |
| Original Recording Format | |
| Instruments | |
| Release Date | August 1, 2025 |
Press reviews
Positive Feedback
This is an album not neatly categorized. Jazz, milonga, folk, free improvisation, and lullaby form a fluid continuum through which the voice leads and fellow musicians follow, improvise, or occasionally assume the lead. And so, this is an album not neatly categorized. World music is perhaps most apt category if one is needed, for this is an album filled with music that can speak to us all, drawing on a complexity of influences.
Recorded by Jared Sacks in the very relaxed informal setting of his living room, the sound is intimate, unprocessed, direct. It is the perfect setting for these songs, for this sharing. May I say, simply, that I enjoy this album. And I’ve enjoyed every playing over multiple days. It’s a keeper that I shall return to hear. And it is an album which I warmly recommend you check out.
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