A polyglot songwriter and singer with two critically lauded to her credit, Lhasa (aka Lhasa de Sela) has in part been appreciated for the variety of her identities: She was born in New York, grew up in Mexico, and has since become an internationally beloved mainstay of the Montreal indie-rock scene. Her music has been a unique composite of a diverse background and influences.

The artists third album, however, is a departure, remarkable for its unadorned simplicity: It is sung only in English and recorded mostly live on analog tape with a small, acoustic band. Aptly entitled simply Lhasa, the album will be released in the U.S. September 15 by Nettwerk Records.

Drawing upon American folk, blues and gospel, the new disc is a timeless work that will appeal audiences of various generations. Lhasas singular voice is surrounded by spare but rich instrumentation including piano, steel guitar, banjo, harp and a small drum kit. Lhasa wrote and produced it herself, with some contributions from fellow Canadian singer-songwriter-producer Patrick Watson. Of the recording, Lhasa says, I loved working with tape. It changes everything. Instead of getting lost in perfectionism, recording to tape forces you to hear the music as a whole, accept small flaws for the sake of the bigger picture, and capture a performance."

Its not just its engineering that makes Lhasa an album in the classic sense. Forming a single, coherent work, the songs converse with one another. One song asks a question, another answers; one plunges into the chaos and confusion of human emotion, while another seeks to rise above it.

The upcoming U.S. release of Lhasa builds upon considerable critical praise the album received in its British and Canadian releases earlier this year. The album received four-star reviews in Londons The Times, MOJO, Q, The Financial Times and The Daily Express, among other newspapers and magazines.

Lhasas previous album, The Living Road (2003) was similarly well received. The way Feist described it in the New York Times applies equally to the new self-titled disc: You can hear the size of the room it was recorded in. And there's something about her voice: you can tell her feet are planted on the ground, and she's not even moving, maybe shes just holding her arm out in front of herand shes just singing from the marrow of her bones. Between The Living Road and Lhasas debut, La Llorona (1997), she has sold over a million albums worldwide.