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maltatoday | SUNDAY • 25 APRIL 2021 7 MUSIC COMPOSER and pianist Véronique Vella will be releasing her debut solo album "one of the number" on 3rd May 2021. This electroacoustic album features the spoken word, with women from six European countries sharing their experiences of life during the Covid-19 pandemic. The languages featured are Mal- tese, English, French, Italian and Spanish. Each of the 10 tracks on the album is named after the women who shared their thoughts and reflections with the artist. The work will be digitally distributed on Spotify and on most online music-sharing platforms.The featured partic- ipants are mostly in their 30s and 40s and based in Malta, France and Scotland. As they are friends, colleagues or fam- ily members of Vella's, the de- livery often verges on the con- fessional, creating an intimate snapshot of the women's lives. The tone of the album rang- es from the bleak and dark to the hopeful and sometimes spiritual. The style of the album was influenced by minimalism, downtempo ambient psyche- delia and sacred music. In the opening track, Scottish musician and avid long-dis- tance runner, Elspeth, talks about contracting the virus in the UK during the first wave of the pandemic. Nathalie, a schoolteacher, details how she and her family spent their time during lockdown in France. Jessica is a hospital nurse who shares her fears about passing the virus on to her children, before the vaccine was availa- ble in Malta. Lucía outlines the challenges of remotely man- aging the university's dance studies department during the pandemic and not being able to visit family in Spain. The album also features the composer's mother, Therese, who speaks about the isola- tion and anxiety the pandemic caused among the elderly and vulnerable. Dancer and edu- cator Sara, on the other hand, tells of the challenges she expe- rienced after becoming a first- time mother last year, miles away from her family in Italy. Claudia, who is still covering coronavirus-related stories of- fers a journalist's perspective, while Scottish singer and ed- ucator, Aimee, speaks about having to switch to online per- forming and losing work. De- spite the overall gloomy theme of the album, the music offers a ray of hope. This is most apparent in the final track, thanks to Olivia's philosophical musings, which address the urgent need for us to come together and strive for a better world. Rene Mamo was in charge of mixing and mastering Vella's "One of the number" while Oliver Degabriele designed the cover art. The project was funded by Arts Council Malta. Veronique Vella releases debut solo album Veronique Vella