Recommended Listening: Judith de los Santos

You cannot compare artists objectively. You can only say what it is you like most. That’s what art is about. I suppose for some of us, music does that. It touches something inside, and for each of us, there is some particular mix of music and musicians who touch us in the place deep inside which has no name.
Then comes along every once in awhile a performer who does that for so very many people, they justifiably gain fame. Or could, if the awful pit of Hell reserved for the music business didn’t destroy so many. But a few escape, at least for a time, that hideous murdering mass of exploitation and their songs are heard by those who never get enough of the beauty.
Perhaps you remember Karen Carpenter. We may never know the truth, but it seems she was destroyed by one manager who lied to her about her physical beauty, suggesting she wasn’t quite perfect enough. At any rate, she died from complications of anorexia in 1983. And we who loved her angelic singing are yet angry these many years later that so much was taken from us all too soon.
So while we do not sanely compare one with another, we know when that touch comes again. I’d like to suggest you, too, may be touched by the haunting beauty of a voice I’ve not heard of before. Judith de los Santos recorded a cover of something written, of all things, for a computer game by Jeremy Soule. I’m willing to bet she found something in that song even Mr. Soule didn’t know was there. Instead of having to wade through the music business moguls, she’s making good use of the Internet. Go ahead and visit YouTube and listen for yourself: here.
Update: Judith’s performances are also covered under the name “Malukah.”