This isn’t just an album, it’s an Odyssey. Come be a part of it.

A process seven years in the making and a lifetime chronicle of my journey with music. Somewhere in between Joni Mitchell and Manu Chao, this debut album is at the crossroads of folk, world and pop (popular--of the people), centered around my voice, and my travelling companion, the ukulele.

Pushing the instrument to its creative strengths, the small 4-stringed lute evokes a West African kora, while its crystallising, high-pitched sound echoes old jazz recordings.

Read the story below !

The Story:

In 2012 I met producer, engineer and musical director Alban Moraud. I don’t think I realised the impact of this meeting. We’d spend the subsequent years recording parts of the album in unearthly beautiful churches in French villages, some of them nine centuries old! The song “Easy” even features the bell of the church because it started ringing while we were recording and I just kept going--we kept the entire take as is. In this way, the church really becomes a character, another musician in the room. Alban was the driving force behind this. He made me play my ukulele until it was perfect, and pushed every hesitant note. He made it perfect, fragile, real and magical.

Four years later, I moved from France to London, a period which would radically redefine my different singing styles (from Korean minyo to Spanish flamenco). Yet following heavy damage to my voice I had a major vocal operation which I took four years to recuperate from. This is what makes this album unique. It has recordings in which I have a teenager’s voice, recordings where my voice is breaking, broken, healing and healed.

Who is on the Album ?

We realised that we didn’t actually want an entire album just ukulele and voice, so we decided to send the tracks to musician friends all over the world, from Sweden to India. They contributed whatever they felt like with very little indication of style or melody, it was about whatever the song inspired in them. So what you hear in the adaptation of the poem “Time, You Old Gipsy Man” by Ralph Hodgson, is clarinet playing from Liam Fionescu, a British/Romani clarinettist. There is a Croatian traditional song in “Rain”, the single, that is a rain-calling song and was taught by Lidija Dokuzović.

Who are The Wonders? The Wonders are my musicians. I started working with them in the summer of 2016, later on in the project. I essentially recruited them in Paris, and said: “I want YOU”. Four songs on the album feature the band and are as beautifully orchestral as I had hoped: they were the missing link to bring it all together.

What's Next?

Sharing all of this with you. Having you be a part of this chapter ending (or beginning ?) is really the highest blessing. We are ready; my voice has never felt so strong, my band is hot and the tale is at its reveal point.

We have paid the studios (churches), rented the best sound equipment there is, paid the film directors, graphic designer, photographers, and we need you for the final stretch. By myself this is months and months of salary, but together, it’s possible.

What’s Left?

-1,200 euros of artwork for the album

-2,060 euros to make the actual babes (1,000 CDs + shipping costs)

-640 euros, is the 8% the crowdfunding website keeps

-1,500 euros to rent out a space for the release party in Paris (all contributors invited, transport not included hehe)

-1,000 euros in SDRM copyright registration

That’s a total of 6,400 euros.

We actually need 8,000 euros. The extra 1,600 is for marketing and press, to get the album out in the world.

If we get to 9,000 euros we would spend 1,000 euros on a new video clip!

with 10,000 we would spend 1,000 paying a tour manager to get us to come see you all of you all over the world, trying to minimise the footprint as much as possible.

With 11,000 we would spend 1,000 euros to sponsor an artist to make us some recycled, gorgeous merch.

The Album will be released end of November 2019, crowdfunders shall be receiving their albums end of September/beginning of October (so yes, before everyone else- cos you’re special).

We have thought of some beautiful gifts, my favourites are the “songs of you” and recipes (these are going to be very funny).

What about after you fund this album?

We are going on Tour! At the end of October/early November, Luna is going on a solo tour around the UK as part of a project uniting musicians from all over the world called Making Tracks. Luna Silva & The Wonders are doing an incredible project around Ecology with a choir made up of 150 kids culminating in a show played on the 15th of December. And then the band is going on a French Tourbadour in the French countryside (dates being confirmed).

Before I thank you for your contribution to the arts and supporting music-making (seriously you’re a star), I would like to present to you the TEAM:

🌠 Luna Silva & The Wonders- Debut Album 🌠

The publications