Lau Ro

Born in São Paulo, Brazil, Lau Ro moved with their family to Europe as a teenager, eventually settling in Brighton, UK and immersing themself amongst the city’s vanguard of free-thinking artists and musicians. The non-binary singer and composer formed the band Wax Machine, releasing three cult-favourite albums from 2020 to 2023, indebted in part to British psychedelic forebears from progressive folk, rock, and jazz yore. 

In 2024, Ro delved further into their Brazilian roots for their first solo effort, Cabana (Far Out Recordings), and played percussion on Jessica Pratt’s European tour for Here in the Pitch. That year, they also dealt with a debilitating form of Flat Back Syndrome, leaving them in a haze of discomfort and disorientation, from which emerges Lau, their debut album for Mexican Summer. The tender, deeply introspective collection was recorded and collaged together in spurts of energy, favoring 4-track cassette improvisations and highly layered, textural overdubs, giving the music a windswept, three-dimensional feel.

Lau is naturally cerebral — these are psych-pop songs housing surrealist visions and therapeutic excavations of the soul — yet radiant, compassionate, and, above all, honest, spiritually aligned with the resolve of the natural world. “Pain comes for everyone in some way or another, but you choose whether to let it harden you or allow it to soften you,” says Ro, who triumphantly chose the latter, suffusing that softness with an enduring love for bossa nova, tropicalia, and Música popular brasileira.